


Dangerous Temptations

by recbestficsever



Series: Dangerous Temptation. [1]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Kidfic, Older/Louis, Smut, Underage/Harry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-15
Updated: 2014-03-14
Packaged: 2018-01-15 18:39:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 13
Words: 28,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1315186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/recbestficsever/pseuds/recbestficsever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry is the older brother, of Louis’s son’s best friend, and he becomes a dangerous temptation when he begins to tutor the sixteen year old.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Mundane.

That was the one word that could easily sum up Louis Tomlinson’s view on life. It was as if his life was in this repetitive cycle for the past few years and he couldn’t easily break free. He was trapped. Trapped in the same life for the past six years, all because of one simple, but costly, mistake.

Looking back, he didn’t necessarily regret what happened. He loved Nathan, he did, but his girlfriend having a son when they were both just seventeen years old was not supposed to happen.

Life moved forward though- both he and his girlfriend learning to live with their consequences. They got married, moved into a small house, worked mediocre jobs, and raised Nathan as best they could.

That’s not to say, though, that Louis was happy.

Far from it.

He knew he wasn’t the only one who felt trapped in the relationship; both he and his wife staying together only for their six year old son. Still, he was the only one who began to visibly change. Eleanor was great, she really was. The perfect ideal housewife even. Always the forced smile on her face, even when Louis’ once dazzling and contagious grin faded over the years.

Little had Louis expected the smile to once again return to his face, all because of a younger boy.

~ * ~

“Would you stop fidgeting Louis and stand still?” Eleanor muttered, arms lightly crossed over her chest.

“Sorry. Sorry,” Louis mumbled hastily and automatically, forcing himself to stop moving.

The two of them were standing in the park at the edge of the football field, waiting for Nathan to join them. It had been Eleanor’s idea to have their son join the team, for she figured it would be a great way for him to make some friends. It turned out to be quite the successful idea as well, for Nathan often filled the silences at the dinner table with stories of his friends Alex and Will.

“Where is he?” Louis sighed. “Their match ended a good fifteen minutes ago.”

“What, do you have some place you need to be?” Eleanor asked. “I thought you got off work.”

“I did get off,” Louis replied shortly, for he hadn’t wanted to miss supporting his son. That didn’t mean though that he fancied standing around in the park for ages and waiting for Nathan to finally get off the field.

“Look, he’s over there talking to Will and his family.” Eleanor pointed out. Louis followed where Eleanor’s finger was indicating, spotting a family of three along with his son. “Come on,” Eleanor said, “Let’s get him and then go home.”

She took his hand in hers, heading to the family, but soon dropped it as if even touching him was an unpleasant act.

“Hello Anne,” Eleanor greeted once they were close.

“Hi Eleanor,” Anne said, smiling jovially. “I was just saying to Nathan that he ought to come over tomorrow and keep William company. Maybe that’ll stop Will from annoying his brother, who’s got to focus on studying for his examinations,” the brunette woman said, causing a sigh to escape from the taller boy standing next to Anne. “Don’t you get all huffy. You need to do well if you want to go to college in the fall.”

Louis’ eyes flickered to the boy, never having met Anne’s oldest son before. His initial thought was that the boy really didn’t look that young, though, if he were going to college next school year, then he couldn’t be more than seventeen. There was something about him, something that Louis couldn’t quite place as he took in the brown curls, green eyes, and wide smile of the boy.

“I’m sure that’d be just fine. Either Louis or I can bring him by. Right, Lou?” Eleanor asked.

“Hmm?” Louis asked, head twisting so he was no longer looking at the boy. “Oh, yeah,” he said, seeing the expectant expression on Eleanor’s face. “Yeah, that’s fine. I could drop him off after work tomorrow.”

“Excellent.” Anne grinned. “See you tomorrow then. Come on, boys,” Anne said, leading Will and her other son away and towards the parking lot.

“I can really go tomorrow, dad?” Nathan asked excitedly.

“Of course, mate. I see no reason why not,” Louis replied, shooting a glance to Eleanor who merely shrugged.

“As long as we pick you up again before supper.”

“Okay!” Nathan agreed. “Maybe Will and I will still be able to bother Harry a bit! He’s loads of fun.”

“Harry?” Louis asked, frowning in confusion.

“Yeah, Harry. That’s Will’s brother. The guy that was just here,” Nathan answered with a small shrug. “Can I get ice cream now?” he asked, lightly tugging his mum’s hands with his small ones and pulling her towards the concession stand. “You promised last time!”

“Alright, alright,” Eleanor said with a light laugh as she began walking. “Louis, are you coming?” she asked, turning around and giving him an exasperated look when she saw that he was standing there with a slightly aloof expression on his face. 

Louis couldn’t help it though, especially not with the name and image of Harry burned into his mind.


	2. Chapter 1

“Yes, sir. We have increased our prices…No,sir, the product has not gone down in quality….Yes, sir, I -” Louis pulled the phone away from his ear, glaring at it for a moment and then slammed the receiver down. “Bloody fucking wanker,” he mumbled.

He had learned to accept that many of the calls he received from customers were complaints and that it was something out of his control. Still, he hated his job. He hated how others would take their frustration towards the cutlery company out on him. But that’s just how customer service was and, with a steady raise every six months, he learned to just deal with it.

Still, dealing with it and liking it were two completely different concepts.

Two years ago he had toyed with the idea of leaving the company, for his wife had successfully broke into the real estate business and sold a few houses. Now though, he knew that finding another job was something that wasn’t in the cards for him. Eleanor had acquired a house, a true fixer-upper, and had been stuck trying to sell it for the past eight months. She had once been making much more money than he, but that had changed over the past year. That’s not to say that they didn’t manage though, they did, but discussions on finances was something that left the two stressed and angry.

Louis wouldn’t completely place the blame for his marital problems on their financial burdens, but that was definitely a contributing factor. How could it not be? Nathan was all too aware of how his toy collection had been cut back and how his parents refused to buy things that they deemed “unnecessary.” Louis doubted he would ever forget the fit his son threw after that discussion.

“Tomlinson, come to my office.”

Louis glanced up, eyes widening a little when he saw his boss standing before him. The man was every meaning of the word ‘sleaze’. From greased back hair and a thin, dark moustache, to his large protruding belly that was accentuated from too tight button-down shirts.

Standing up quickly, he followed Mr. Taylor to the office, moving almost numbly while thoughts flitted through his mind as to why he was possibly being summoned. There was really only one reason that he could think of and he knew that now was a horrible time to be fired. God, Eleanor would probably kill him. Maybe she’d murder him real quick though instead of something long and drawn out. Nah, she’d probably want to make him suffer.

“You can take a seat,” Mr. Taylor said, motioning to the chair in front of the desk.

Louis fell down onto it, watching Mr. Taylor wearily.

“Now, as I’m sure you are aware, sales have really fallen this quarter,” Mr. Taylor began. “The company finances have taken a bit of a hit and the only reasonable solution-”

“Please don’t fire me!” Louis interrupted, his tone pleading. “I’ll… I’ll work over–time for nothing! I’ll work every possible holiday for no additional pay! I’ll-”

“Mr. Tomlinson, who said anything about firing?” Mr. Taylor asked, raising a thick dark eyebrow and effectively silencing Louis. “The company has decided to have all employees create a file that describes why they are an asset to the company and what they contribute. From there, decisions will be made. The file must be on my desk by Thursday. You may go.”

Louis stood immediately once he heard the dismissal, then left the office quickly and headed back to his desk. He sat down, eyebrows furrowed as he began contemplating what he was going to write. Could the company really do that? Make them create these descriptions and fire based on that? Surely it wasn’t an ethical solution to the financial problem, but Louis knew that he had no other choice but to do it.

As his phone rang, he forced a smile on his face and answered it with as much of a pleasant tone as he could muster.

“Thank you for calling Tottham’s Cutlery. This is Louis speaking, how may I help you?”

~ * ~

The rest of the day proved to be uneventful, and as he sat in his car driving home, he began trying to think of what he was going to possibly write for the company.

“You shouldn’t fire me, because my wife would kill my sorry ass,” he said to himself, wondering what would happen if he did actually put that down.

Snorting at the thought, he knew that the company would probably just deem him emotionally unstable or something and fire him because of it.

Once he reached his neighbourhood, he took out his mobile phone and called the house. The phone rang three times before it was picked up.

“Hi, dad!” Nathan’s voice said cheerily.

“Nate! What did mum and I say about answering the phone?”

“But…I saw your name on the screen!”

Louis sighed, knowing that there was no use in arguing with that logic.

“Alright, but don’t make a habit of getting the phone.”

“I know, dad, I know. Are you almost home? Is it time to go to Will’s?” Nathan’s light voice asked, and Louis could practically feel the excitement bursting from his son’s tone.

“I’ll be home in a couple minutes, so make sure you’ve got your shoes and coat on. Okay?”

“Okay, dad!” Nathan said, and Louis heard the click that signaled he had been hung up on. Figures. With a scoff, he wondered if that it were William on the line, would his son hang up so suddenly. Probably not.

It wasn’t that Louis had a terrible relationship with Nathan, not in the slightest. He just worked long hours and that made it difficult to spend quality time with his son. Louis was sure that Nathan resented him a bit for the little time that they did spend together.

Once he pulled up to the house, he parked the car, turned it off, and then climbed out of it. Before he could even make his way towards the house though, Nathan was rushing towards him.

“I’m ready!” the small, dark haired boy said, bright blue eyes flashing eagerly.

“Your mum’s inside?” Louis asked.

“Yeah, she’s making dinner. It smells funny, but don’t tell her I said that,” Nathan said, wrinkling his nose a little as if remembering the smell. “Now can we go? Please?”

Louis let out a small chuckle, watching as Nathan opened the back car door and climbed into his booster seat.

“You’d think you’ve never been to Will’s house before,” he mused.

Figuring that Nathan would bite his head off if he even went into the house for a moment, he shrugged his jacket off and threw it onto the passenger’s seat.

He then got into the car as well, starting it up after making sure Nathan was buckled properly. He set off for Will’s house, recalling the specific directions that Eleanor had given him. As he drove, he glanced periodically into the rearview mirror, smiling to himself when he saw Nathan’s head bopping along to the radio music.

“How was school?” he asked his son, who was in Year One.

“Good! Sammy tried to stick play-doh up his nose but Mrs. Robbins caught him and he got in big trouble!”

“Why was he trying to stick play-doh up his nose?”

“Because it’s funny!” Nathan answered, as if it were the most obvious answer in the world. “We also drawed pictures today.”

“Drew. Not ‘drawed’,” Louis corrected.

Nathan let out a small huff before saying, “We drew pictures today.”

“What was it a picture of?”

“You, mummy, and me,” he smiled.

“I’ll have to see it when I get home,” Louis said, turning onto the street that Will’s house was on. “Alright. This is it, right?” he asked, turning onto the drive of number twenty-two.

“Yes!” Nathan said.

As soon as the car was parked, Louis turned the engine off and unbuckled his seatbelt. He got out of the car and opened the back door to see Nathan struggling to get the buckle. His little fingers were having difficulty undoing the seatbelt and Louis quickly helped him out.

“Thanks, dad!” he said, climbing out of the booster seat and out of the car.

Louis shut the door and turned to see Nathan already making his way quickly to the front door.

“Hey, bud. Wait!” he said, rushing forward to meet up with his son on the front path. Nathan reluctantly froze, a flicker of small annoyance on his face. “Alright, alright, let’s go,” Louis said once he caught up.

“Can I ring the doorbell?” Nathan asked once they were at the front door.

Louis nodded before saying, “Go ahead.”

Nathan stood on his tiptoes, struggling to reach the button easily, but finally managing. They waited only a moment before the front door opened and Louis felt himself freeze.

He should have figured that there was a possibility that Harry was going to be the one to greet them and answer the door. Perhaps there was an even bigger possibility that Louis had seriously hoped that would be the case. Still, he was surprised that that turned out to be exactly what happened.

Louis wasn’t sure what it was about the kid. And that was really all he was. A kid. Since running into Will, Anne, and Harry at the park yesterday, Louis hadn’t been able to shake the image of the younger lad from his mind. He also knew, as he looked at the boy now, that he wasn’t going to be able to shake the image out of his mind for the rest of the day. There was something about his carelessly tousled hair and bright gleaming eyes. Louis could honestly say he’d never been as captivated from the appearance of someone else as he was.

“Hi, Harry!” Nathan’s voice said, pulling Louis from his moment of staring.

“Hi, Nate,” Harry replied with a smile before his eyes flashed up to look at Louis. “Nice suspenders,” he said, the corners of his lips tugging into an even bigger grin.

For a moment Louis found himself unable to think of a suitable response. He hadn’t heard Harry speak yesterday, though now he had the sound of his voice flying throughout his head. There was something almost soft about it and all that Louis could really think to say was a mumbled, “Thanks.”

“Will’s in the living room, Nathan. He’s got some new toy he wants to show you,” Harry said, holding open the door to let him through.

“Nathan,” Louis said, coming to his senses before Nathan could run off and disappear. “I’m coming back in two hours, alright? Mum’s making dinner and she wants you home for it.”

Nathan nodded before running off into the house, shouting out an, “Okay, dad!” as he left.

Harry turned to him, a curious look in his eyes.

“So you’re really his dad?”

Louis felt almost affronted by the statement, but reminded himself that many people often mistook him for an older brother, not a father.

“Yeah, accidents happen,” he blurted, before his eyes widened. “I mean, you know, sometimes, protection…use it,” he mumbled, mortified that what he was saying was becoming worse.

“I don’t think I’ll have to worry about accidents like that,” Harry replied nonchalantly, his eyes locked on Louis’. The two stared at each other for a moment before Harry licked his lips and continued with an easy smile, “But uh, thanks for the advice.”

Louis wasn’t sure what to make of Harry’s first statement, and knew that he was going to be thinking on it for the rest of the day.

“Right. I uhh, I should go. I’ll get him in two hours,” he said, shifting on the balls of his feet.

“Yeah, so you said to Nathan earlier. See you later then, Mr. Tomlinson.”

Harry gently shut the door and Louis stood where he was for a moment before turning and heading to the car. As he began to make the drive home, he couldn’t help but to think he was truly fucked with all the thoughts running through his mind.


	3. Chapter 2

Louis was rather disappointed that he hadn’t seen Harry when he went to pick up Nathan from the Cox residence. As he sat and ate dinner, the table quiet as the small Tomlinson family ate, he mused that perhaps that was a good thing. What would even have happened? Another small teasing comment from the kid? Another smile? Or maybe just a hello and goodbye.

Shaking himself from his thoughts, Louis tried not to let himself get wrapped up in the idea of what the conversation could have been like and instead try and enjoy the pasta dish that Eleanor had made. When Nathan had mentioned that it had smelled funny, Louis had thought his son was just being dramatic. Now though, after tasting it, he definitely could see what his son meant. It tasted bloody awful. He wasn’t going to say anything though and have Eleanor mad at him for the rest of the night.

“Mummy? Dad? How come I don’t have a brother like Will does?” Nathan asked, breaking the silence.

The simple question caused Louis to choke on his food as a bit of the pasta with it’s nasty and sticky sauce got lodged in his throat. Coughing for a moment and then reaching for his glass of water, he took a careful sip while glancing up to see Eleanor’s reaction. She was biting her lip, an almost unsure look on her face.

“Nathan, some families only have one child. Your daddy and I are really happy with you and find ourselves lucky,” she answered.

“But…what if I’m not happy and want a brother or a sister like Alex has? But his sister only likes playing stupid princess games and house games and those are boring and stupid,” Nathan said, wrinkling his nose in detest.

Louis felt uncomfortable as his eyes flickered between Nathan and Eleanor. It wasn’t like the conversation had never been broached before with his wife, but she had said that she felt much too young to settle down and have a huge family at twenty-three. It also didn’t help that they were having a bit of financial trouble.

“Are you not happy Nathan?” Eleanor asked in concern.

The little boy shrugged his shoulders, looking dejectedly down at his food.

“Sometimes I just want someone to play with here,” he answered, moving the food around on his plate with his fork. “But I guess I’ve got Will!” Nathan said, lifting his face with a smile. “And…and Harry can be like my big brother!”

Louis felt relieved that Nate hadn’t been fussed about the whole thing, though hearing Harry’s name caused him to smile as the image of the curly haired boy flashed through his mind. Once he realized what he was doing though, he wiped the expression off of his face and began trying to eat the pasta dish again. Christ, he really had to get himself under control.

“Dad? Mummy said I had to ask you if you can take me to the park tomorrow,” Nathan said, as if suddenly remembering.

Louis threw his wife a look before saying, “Oh she did, did she?”

“Will’s gonna be there and I want to go and play!”

After letting out a small sigh, Louis muttered, “Of course he’s going to be there.”

Not that he really had anything against the friendship. In fact, it made him quite happy that Nathan had a friend who he was really close to. Hopefully his six-year-old son wouldn’t start to have dependency issues on Will though, for they were becoming rather inseparable.

“Can we?” Nathan asked, his blue eyes emanating hope.

Louis should have known that looking at his son’s face would have caused him to cave in. It really wasn’t easy to say no to Nathan.

“Alright. Fine,” he said, sighing dramatically. “I get out of work quite early tomorrow anyway. We’ll go after school, okay?”

Nathan nodded his head enthusiastically, quite pleased with the answer.

“Just make sure you’re home on time for dinner,” Eleanor warned. “I’m going to be trying this new Mexican dish.”

Louis held back a groan at the thought and hoped that the dish wouldn’t turn out awful and cause him to run to the toilet the entire night.

~ * ~

“So you’re really alright with taking Nathan to the park tomorrow?” Eleanor asked, rinsing off the plate that Louis handed before loading it into the dishwasher.

“Yeah, it’s fine. Seeing as it’s Friday, I get off rather early anyway,” Louis shrugged, scrapping off the leftover food from one of the plates into the trash bin before handing that one to Eleanor. “Though, why do I have to be the one to take him?” he asked, wondering how he got roped into the whole thing.

“I’m showing a house a few times tomorrow afternoon, then have to come back and make dinner.”

“Right, right,” Louis sighed, watching as Eleanor placed the rest of the dishes into the dishwasher. He was quiet for a moment before asking, “Do you think it really bothers him?”

There was no need for him to clarify what he meant by the statement, Eleanor seeming to pick up almost instantly.

“He has his friends.” Eleanor pointed out. “We aren’t ready for another kid.”

“Well, do you think we ever will be?” he asked.

Sure, Louis knew that they were still young and had plenty of time to have children, but he really did love kids and part of him did want another, even if they weren’t in the most stable financial situation. On top of that though, he and Eleanor hadn’t been going through the easiest phase of their relationship. The passion that had once been present had been continuously diminishing for the past three years. Louis honestly couldn’t recall the last time he had had sex with his wife. It had to have been at least three months, something that no young lad wanted to experience.

“I don’t know, Louis,” Eleanor murmured after a moments pause. She closed and started the dishwasher, then turned and leaned against the counter, her arms crossed over her chest.

“Well do you want to have more kids with me at some point?” he rephrased.

She seemed to be considering the answer ever more carefully and they stared at each other in silence for a minute.

“Maybe,” she said, though her tone made it sound questioning. “The way things are now… no.”

Louis nodded before sighing and saying, “I figured as much.”

“Let’s talk about this later. I’ve got things I’ve got to do for work,” Eleanor said, pushing herself off the counter and leaving the kitchen.

Louis remained where he was for a moment, his hand running through his hair once, before figuring he really ought to get started on writing that damn piece for work.

~ * ~

“Shoes?”

“Yep!”

“Jacket?”

“Dad! It’s not cold out!”

“Hey, your mum would have a fit if you didn’t leave the house without one.”

“But it’s not that cold!”

“Nathan…”

“Fine.”

As soon as Louis had come home from his early work shift, Nathan had practically dragged him back out the door so that the two could head to the park. Louis really didn’t mind all that much, for then he didn’t have to spend any time talking to Eleanor. He was not necessarily mad at his wife, just extremely frustrated with her. After their exchange in the kitchen, the two hadn’t said another word to each other for the rest of the night and Louis had passed out in the guest room.

“Is this one fine, dad?” Nathan asked, holding up one of his lighter jackets.

“That’s fine. It’s not even that cold out.”

“Then why am I bringing it?!” Nathan huffed, gesticulating widely as if it was a big deal that he had to carry around a jacket.

“Because I said so,” Louis replied with a grin, playfully tugging on Nathan’s ear and causing the boy to squeak from the action. “Now ready?”

Nathan nodded, running out the door and straight to the car. Louis followed with a bemused chuckle, making sure that Nathan was properly in his booster seat before getting in himself, starting the car, and heading to the park.

One of the nice things about the neighbourhood that they lived in was that it was less than a five minute drive to the park, a place where Nathan really loved to go. Which was good, since Louis much preferred to have his son interested in playing outdoors than inside and playing video games or watching television. The park was also really big. Not only were there different sports fields and a nice walking trail, but also a huge playground that was quite popular amongst all the young kids.

After they arrived and the car was parked, Louis grabbed his book and then helped an eager Nathan out of the car.

“Oi! No running off!” Louis said, and the six year old froze in his tracks and gave an impatient huff as he turned to look at his dad.

“Well hurry up, dad!” Nathan said, giving him a look that he definitely had inherited from Eleanor.

“Alright, alright,” Louis said, locking the car and then walking over towards where his son was waiting on the path. “Now when I say it’s time to go, we’ve got to go. Okay?” he asked, placing a hand on Nathan’s shoulder as they walked.

Nathan nodded, though his attention was much more focused on the playground.

“Look, dad! There’s Will! Can I go?”

Louis sighed dramatically before saying, “Fine! Leave! Go to your precious Will! I’ll just-” He broke off though for Nathan had already shrugged off his hand and was running to the playground without a second thought. “-go sit on the bench then,” he mumbled to himself.

He sat down on a bench where he could easily keep an eye on Nathan to make sure nothing happened, then opened up his book and began to read. He never really had much time to read, though times like this, where Nathan would be playing for at least an hour, were perfect.

As he got rather wrapped up in the murder case of Mr. Tinkleraumer and the detective discovering the body, he didn’t notice or hear anyone approaching the bench. Not that he really would have seen anyone, for the person was quite intent on sneaking up behind him.

“Damn. Disemboweled?” A voice suddenly breathed in his ear, causing him to jump. “Not a pleasant way to go.”

Louis quickly turned, nearly giving himself whiplash, as he came face to face with Harry. The younger boy looked at him with an amused expression, one that probably resulted from his startled one.

“Well hello, Mr. Tomlinson.”

“Uh, hi,” he said, failing to come up with a half-eloquent response. “What are…what are you doing here?” he asked.

“Well, see that kid over there?” Harry asked, reaching a hand out next to Louis’ head and pointing at the playground. Harry’s face seemed to come even closer to his own and Louis reluctantly pulled his gaze off of it to follow the path to where Harry was pointing. “That’s Will, my brother, who is playing with your son. Someone’s got to watch him,” Harry said with a grin.

“What about your mum?” Louis asked with a frown.

“She had to get some shopping done so she dropped the two of us off,” Harry shrugged. “Why? Don’t want me here?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No! That’s not it,” Louis said quickly, for that wasn’t what he had meant at all when he asked the question. “Just…just curious.”

“Oh, well good,” Harry said, smiling as he moved around the bench and then sat down. “So how have you been, Mr. Tomlinson?”

Louis wasn’t sure what to make of Harry continuously using his last name. It may have appeared meaningless, but the slight tone that Harry would use when saying it was almost teasing. Or maybe he was just reading into it too much. That was entirely possible as well.

“Fine,” he said. “Just busy with work. You?”

For the past twenty-four hours Louis had thought of not much more than his small exchange with Harry yesterday and all the things he could have said. He could have been so much funnier, quicker, and wittier. Now though, words were failing him again.

“Mum’s just been pushing me to study,” Harry shrugged. “She seems to think I will fail my exams,” he said, rolling his bright eyes. “Then again, she’s under the impression that all kids my age are just at home studying.”

“How…how old are you?” Louis tried to ask nonchalantly, though he had been curious as to Harry’s age since they first informally met.

“Sixteen,” the boy replied.

“Sixteen?” Louis repeated, his jaw dropping. He knew Harry was young, though he hadn’t expected that young.

Harry turned to look at Louis, raising an eyebrow while saying, “Age is only a number.”

Louis reminded himself to shut his mouth, though couldn’t help but to suck in a quick breath from the simple statement. With the intensity that Harry was staring at him, Louis quickly deduced what the boy had been implying.

“True,” Louis breathed.

“I’ll be seventeen real soon,” Harry said, turning away his gaze and looking to the playground.

“Oh,” was all that Louis could think to reply.

They sat in silence for a minute, Louis sneaking what he hoped were subtle looks at the boy beside him.

“How old are you, Mr. Tomlinson? That is, if you don’t mind me asking,” Harry said, though the smile on his face was a bit teasing.

“Twenty-three,” Louis replied with ease. “Though, age is only a number,” he said, echoing what Harry had said moments before.

“Very true,” Harry said with a grin.

And if Louis noticed the slight shift of Harry’s body towards his on the park bench, he chose not to say anything. Though, the grin he had on his face for the rest of the day indicated that he very much so had noticed.


	4. Chapter 3

It felt rare for Louis to have a good day with Eleanor, one that led to him sleeping in their bedroom. Hell, he wasn’t even sure why they called it “their” bedroom, when he had been sleeping in the guest room so much. Not that Louis truly minded at all though, for it allowed him to have peaceful nights, and even dreams, that revolved around a certain younger boy.

He knew it was wrong, so completely and unbelievably wrong, but he couldn’t help it.

It wasn’t as though Louis really saw Harry all that often. In fact, the last time that he had seen the younger boy had been practically two weeks ago at the park. It felt like months though. Years even. Perhaps that was why Louis had been having even more difficulty getting Harry out of his mind. He had been exposed to a small dosage of the boy, and he was already addicted.

He managed to convince himself though that he wasn’t a terrible person. It was normal to have an interest in another person. When he reminded himself though that he was married, with a son, that Harry was sixteen and a boy, he remembered how although he had done nothing wrong, his thoughts were inexcusable.

Louis wasn’t all that sure if distance from Eleanor was helping in the situation or making it worse. In a way, he needed and yearned for his wife to somehow physically bring him back to sense, but he felt like she was slowly slipping away from him. Or maybe it was the other way around and he didn’t realize it. Still, regardless, he didn’t fight the distance or lack of attention they were giving each other and had no problems with sleeping in the guest room.

Well, more like he had had no problems with sleeping in the guest room, until Nathan said something one night during dinner.

“But why don’t you sleep with mummy anymore? Isn’t it your room too?” the six year old had asked, his face scrunched with naïve confusion.

“Your dad was sick and it was better to sleep alone,” Eleanor had replied, a simple lie that had Louis forcing himself to hold back a noise of disapproval.

“Dad, you’re sick?!” Nathan had said with worry.

“No! I’m fine now. Never better,” Louis had reassured.

“Oh, so then you’ll share a bed with mum again,” Nathan had said, before turning back to his dinner.

So there Louis was, reluctantly in the bedroom with Eleanor because he didn’t want to let Nathan gain the impression that something was off between the two.

“Oh, is that a new throw pillow?” he asked, motioning to the bed but looking at his wife and blinking innocently.

“Funny,” Eleanor replied dryly, tossing some of the pillows onto the chaise in the room. “Nothing’s changed, Louis.”

“Well sorry. It’s been how long since I’ve slept in here?”

“Your choice,” Eleanor replied shortly.

“What you seemed to want.”

“I never said that.”

“But your silence definitely implied it,” Louis shot back, changing into his pajamas quickly and then climbing into the bed.

Eleanor changed as well before settled into the bed quietly, turning off the light without another word and moving onto her side so that her back was to Louis.

“Forgot how comfortable this bed is,” Louis mumbled, shifting slightly so that he was more comfortable.

Eleanor let out a small hum but said nothing, causing Louis to sigh loudly. He let out another sigh, much louder, when she continued to not acknowledge him.

“What?” she asked sharply, turning and shooting him a glare.

“What’s happened with us,” he said gently. “It’s like…it’s like you don’t even see me anymore.”

“Louis,” Eleanor said with a groan. “Now’s not the time for this talk. I’ve got work in the morning and-“

“It’s never the time to talk about this, is it? It’s always ‘work, work, work’ and ‘money, money, money’.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” Eleanor said. “It is all about work and money because that’s our biggest problem right now.”

“No, I think our biggest problem is us,” Louis corrected.

“I-” Eleanor began, but Louis cut her off.

“Kiss me,” he said, his voice soft, simple, but demanding.

“What?!” Eleanor asked, full of surprise.

“Kiss me,” Louis repeated, shifting closer towards his wife.

“What does that have to do with anything right now?” Eleanor asked.

“All I want to do right now is kiss my wife. To me, that’s really not a big request.”

Eleanor was quiet for a moment, before moving her head forward and pressing her lips to Louis’.

The kiss was quick, soft, and much too forced. So forced in fact, that it only confirmed exactly what Louis had suspected; the spark between the two of them was gone, and had undoubtedly been gone for a while. 

“Now I’m going to sleep,” Eleanor said, turning again on the bed without another word.

~ * ~

“No, dad! That’s not the kind that mum gets!” Nathan said, wrinkling his nose as he watched Louis place a bottle of juice in the shopping car.

“What do you mean? It says apple on it! What difference does it make if it’s the one with the red label or the blue?” Louis asked, completely perplexed.

“Because mummy bought the blue one once, and- and- and it tasted like piss!” Nathan said, his voice growing louder as he continued to speak.

“Don’t say piss,” Louis said with a sigh. “Fine. Is the red label one better?”

“Mhmm!” Nathan said, giving his dad a toothy smile.

“Alright. Next aisle,” Louis said, pushing the cart.

He didn’t do the grocery shopping very often. Every time he did, he’d end up messing up somehow and Eleanor was always annoyed with him. This week, though, they had no choice. Eleanor was busy with trying to sell a house to a few potential buyers and it required overtime in the office. Louis really didn’t mind grocery shopping though.

“I need new toothpaste,” Nathan said as they entered the cosmetic aisle.

“Alright,” Louis said, steering the cart and stopping in front of the variety of toothpaste. “Oh, look at this Nate! A sparkly princess toothpaste! It’s even pink!”

“Dad!” Nathan said, letting out a laugh. “I’m not a girl!”

“You’re not?” Louis said, playing the part of shocked. “So I guess you don’t want the Dora toothpaste either?”

“Dad!” Nathan said again, this time his voice squeaking a little. “No! I want…I want the Transformers one!”

“Fine,” Louis said with a dramatic yet playful sigh. “Transformers it is,” he said, reaching out and taking it off the shelf.

“Good choice. I’d definitely go for Transformers over the pink princess one,” a voice said, causing Louis to quickly turn in surprise.

“Harry!” Nathan said excitedly.

“Hey, mate. Hello, Mr. Tomlinson,” Harry said, his arms crossed and relaxed over his chest. He gave Nathan a grin before turning to look at Louis.

“Hello,” Louis said, reminding himself to play it cool and to breathe. It was just Harry. It wasn’t a big deal. “What are you doing here?”

“I work here,” Harry said, flicking the name badge on his vest.

Louis nearly flushed, for the vest was a rather obvious give away and he felt foolish for not even noticing.

“Right,” Louis said, pulling his gaze off of the boy in front of him and tossing the toothpaste into the shopping cart.

“You didn’t come to the football game the other day,” Nathan said sadly, and Louis found himself glad that he wasn’t the only one that had noticed Harry’s absence.

“I really wish I could have,” Harry said gently. “But I was busy preparing for exams. My mum would have killed me if I left the house. Next game though. I promise I’ll be there.”

“Good!” Nathan said, a grin spreading onto his face. “Dad, can I get a new toothbrush too?” Nathan asked, turning to look at his father.

“Yeah,” Louis said, a bit absentmindedly. “You can pick out whatever you want,” he said, watching as Nathan moved toward the toothbrush section. “Can’t really say no to that request,” Louis said, his gaze moving back to Harry.

“But if he had been asking for candy?”

“Well then I’d probably still cave and let him get some,” Louis admitted, causing Harry to grin, something that was all too infectious and led him to smile as well. “How are your exams going?”

“They haven’t been too terrible. I’ve only got one left though and can’t wait for it to be over.”

“What’s it on?”

“Probably my worst subject,” Harry said, letting out a small groan. “Maths.”

“I didn’t think maths was too bad in school! It was one of my favourite subjects. I may have done something with it if I’d gone to uni.”

“Well I think it’s awful and confusing. I mean, what’s the point of it? What would you even do if you got a degree in it?”

“That…I would have…” Louis broke off with a frown. “Yeah, I don’t really know,” he admitted with a smile. “I just rather enjoyed it in school.”

“I just really hate algebra,” Harry said, scrunching his nose a little at the thought and Louis forcefully pushed the thought from his mind that it was an action that was rather cute.

“I loved algebra.”

“Well, maybe you can help me with it,” Harry suggested boldly. “I mean, that is…if you want. You don’t have to, I just figured that maybe if you were free, you and Nathan could come over and he could play with Will… and you can totally say no if you want because it was a rather ridiculous thing to-“

“Sure,” Louis said, breaking off Harry’s ramblings. “Why not? What time do you get off?”

“Three-thirty. You could come over around four. My mum’ll be out at some parent conference thing for Will, but I’m sure she won’t mind,” Harry said with a small shrug.

“Yeah, alright,” Louis said, giving the younger boy a small smile and trying not to let his thoughts get ove the top, for it would really just be him helping Harry study and then Nathan and Will off playing.

“Dad, I got one!” Nathan said, holding up a toothbrush. “I couldn’t choose between this Transformers one and another, but this one matches the toothpaste better.”

“Okay, put it in the cart, bud,” Louis said, watching as Nathan threw it over the side.

“Oi! Styles! We’re not paying you to socialize, are we?” a man called, arms on his hips as he stood at the entrance of the aisle.

Louis frowned, confused as to who the manager was talking to and who the ‘Styles’ person was, but Harry soon spoke.

“I was just helping this customer,” Harry said quickly. “He was asking which aisle the lubricants were in, but I was just telling him how we didn’t carry it and he’d have to try a drug store,” Harry said, looking at his manager innocently.

The man rolled his eyes and walked away, and Harry turned as soon as he left to give Louis a slightly cheeky smile.

“Lube? Really?” he said, hoping his face wasn’t flushed at all from the insinuating product.

“Sorry,” Harry said, letting out a light laugh. “The things that my imagination will come up with,” he said with a playful wink. “I better get back to work. Can’t have my manager coming back in a huff. See you around four,” he said, turning and walking down the aisle.

Louis watched for a moment as Harry left, once again rendered a little speechless by the younger boy. He turned back to look at Nathan though and saw confusion on his son’s face.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“What’s lubri-lubricant?” Nathan asked, trying to pronounce the word. “That thing Harry had said?”

“Nothing you need to worry about,” Louis brushed off quickly. “Now come on, let’s finish shopping. That way we can head to Will’s house for a bit. Sound good?” he asked, Nathan’s excited cheers soon indicating that it definitely did sound good.


	5. Chapter 4

It was with a sense of nerves and slight anxiety that Louis found himself at the front door of the Cox residence. Nathan had been an excited ball of energy ever since Louis had mentioned going to Will’s house for a bit. His son’s excitement definitely provided a good distraction as well, for Louis’ mind had begun to wander with possibilities of what was going to happen. He had nearly laughed out loud at himself as he had been driving back to the house with the groceries, for he knew he was probably just working himself up.

“Remember, when it’s time to go…it’s time to go. No asking to stay later,” Louis said, giving his son a pointed look as he rang the doorbell.

“Okay, dad,” Nathan said with a small huff, for Louis had already told him this in the car.

The door then opened to reveal a small six-year-old, whose face was radiating with the same excitement as Nathan’s.

“You’re here!” William said, pushing the door open more. “Harry said to watch through the window when it was you and that I could open it!” he said, almost proud of himself for being allowed to open the door. “Come on! Mum picked up this new game, it’s really funny!”

Before Louis could even open his mouth to say anything, the two boys ran off into the house, leaving Louis standing in the doorway. He closed the door behind him, and then stood uncomfortably in the doorway for a moment. Was he meant to just stay where he was? Was he to go looking into different room for Harry? Which room would Harry even be in? The living room? Kitchen? Bedroom?

“There you are,” a smooth voice said, interrupting Louis’ thoughts. He turned his gaze to a doorway to the right, his eyes taking in Harry leaning against a doorframe, arms crossed over his chest. “Wasn’t sure you really were going to come.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Louis asked with a frown. “I told you I would.”

“I just figured you’ve got much better things to do then spend some of your afternoon helping a kid study,” Harry said, shrugging his shoulders then pushing himself off the doorframe.

Harry then began walking off into a room, cocking his head a little before he went so that Louis followed instantly. As he followed, Louis couldn’t help but to replay the word ‘kid’ in his head, an obvious reminder of their age difference.

Entering the kitchen, Louis nearly let out a small, relieved sigh to see the books on the table. It’d be much easier to keep his thoughts in focus if they were in the kitchen than in Harry’s bedroom.

“Want anything to drink or eat?” Harry asked.

“No, I’m fine for now,” Louis replied, sitting down at the table and picking up one of the books. “When’s the exam for this?” he asked, leafing through the book a little.

“Tomorrow.” Harry groaned, collapsing onto the chair next to Louis. “I’ve tried studying a bit, but it’s really not going anywhere. There’s this one equation that I really can’t seem to work through, yet it seems to show up in a lot of problems.”

Louis passed Harry the book wordlessly, watching as Harry’s long fingers began flipping through the pages.

“This one,” Harry said, dropping the book down onto the table and pointing out one of the problems.

Louis had to move a little closer to look at the problem, thinking carefully to himself for a moment as he began to work it out in his head.

“It’s just so hard,” Harry said in a low voice.

Louis wasn’t sure if Harry had used the words quite purposely, but the double meaning did not go over his head.

He cleared his throat before saying, “You’ve got to start by isolating this side.”

Louis began to explain the problem, watching as Harry then worked through the problem carefully. He forced his thoughts to remain calm, though that was becoming increasingly difficult because of the boy sitting next to him. There was something about Harry that was just so, so gorgeous, a word that Louis had never before associated with another male. There was no way that Louis could deny the attraction that he felt towards Harry, it was too great and too overwhelming.

He allowed his eyes to move down from Harry’s face, no longer studying the intense mask of concentration, but rather looking at the paper. He watched as the pen in Harry’s hand moved carefully and easily under the pressure from Harry’s long fingers.

For a moment he just watched Harry’s hand, feeling his breath catch and his face flush when he finally really realized what he had been doing.

“Water?” he asked, pushing himself up from the table and needing a moment to collect himself.

“Huh? Oh,” Harry said, realizing what Louis had wanted. “Glasses are in that cabinet,” he said, pointing to one above the dishwasher.

“Thanks,” Louis mumbled, going to the cabinet and opening it.

He stared into it for a moment, finding that there was a large collection of different sizes and shapes. If it had been his own house, he would have known that he had to pick one of the taller glasses, otherwise Eleanor would get irritated with him for drinking water out of a juice glass.

“Does it matter-” he began to say, but the question died when he felt a small pressure to his lower back, immediately knowing that it was Harry’s hand.

“You can use this one,” Harry said softly, his breath practically tickling Louis’ ear as he reached forward and grabbed a glass.

He didn’t say anything for a moment, instead just turning the slightest bit so that he could see that Harry had yet to put distance between the two of them.

“Thanks,” he murmured, eyes locked on Harry’s dazzling green ones.

Harry nodded in reply, a small smile on his lips.

And that had been Louis’ biggest mistake of the day.

With Harry’s hand on his lower back still, the younger boy’s lips curled in a smile and so unbelievably close, there was no way that Louis could resist any longer.

His mouth moved forward without any thought, their lips meeting for a fleeting second before the realization hit him hard with what he had done. As quickly as he had moved forward, he had pulled back, looking at Harry with wide eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “You…I was just…I…”

He found himself unable to explain what had gone through his head, and he wasn’t sure he even wanted to. Sure, there were comments from Harry that had left him curious, but the younger boy had to have been just pulling his leg. After all, why not mess with a pathetic twenty-three year old man who was in a miserable marriage and awful job?

Harry’s hand moved up so that his index finger rested against Louis’ lips, effectively quieting him.

“I’m not,” Harry said immediately. “You’ve got no reason to be. I want this,” he admitted. “I wanted it when I saw you at the football game and had no idea who you were.”

Louis’ mind began to race. So Harry hadn’t just been pulling some sort of joke on him. For some incomprehensible reason, the sixteen year old was attracted to him.

Before he could respond to what Harry said though, he felt lips pressing gently to his, moving slowly and almost hesitantly. His initial surprise faded quickly and he began to move his lips as well, almost curiously for he had never kissed another boy before. The only thought though that came with it, was that the kiss was already so much better than the ones he had shared with Eleanor, especially as of lately.

Harry’s tongue began to tease his lips and he opened them slightly, allowing the kiss to deepen as Harry’s tongue entered his mouth. While his hands moved to Harry’s hips, lightly gripping and holding them in place, he sucked Harry’s tongue further into his mouth. The younger boy let out a startled sound, one that vibrated into Louis’ mouth, and Louis had to fight the satisfaction over the fact that he had been the one to surprise Harry.

Small gasps, sighs, and moans were passed between their mouths as the kiss continued and their lips moved with fervor. Harry’s hips moved forward a little, an action that immediately began to stir something within Louis’ body. With all the reluctance in the world, he pulled his mouth from Harry’s and opened his eyes, looking at the boy before him nervously.

He forced his eyes off of Harry’s swollen lips and instead met darkened eyes.

“We…we really shouldn’t…” Louis began. “What if-”

“Dad? Can Will-”

Louis’ hands quickly withdrew from Harry’s hips and he gently pushed the boy’s body away from his.

“Hey! Did you just shove my brother,” William asked, looking angrily at Louis and putting his hands on his hips.

“No! I didn’t!” Louis said quickly.

“It’s fine, Will,” Harry said immediately. “We were just playing a game. What’s up? What do you need?”

“I just wanted to know if Will could come over for dinner,” Nathan said, thankfully oblivious to what had been happening earlier in the kitchen.

Louis figured that when the two boys walked in, it must have been completely after the snogging, so they hadn’t thought much about Harry and Louis talking.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea Nathan? You know your mum is cooking, right?” Louis said with a small grimace.

“Yeah, but…”

“William’s actually supposed to be going out to dinner with his dad tonight,” Harry said. “Did you forget about that?” he asked, giving Will a pointed look.

“Oh. Right,” Will sighed.

“Maybe another night,” Louis promised. “I’ll be sure to get take out food as well so that you don’t get sick off of Nathan’s mum’s cooking.”

“Okay. Come on, Will!” Nathan said, pulling his friend out of the room and running off.

Harry glanced over at Louis before repeating, “‘Nathan’s mum’? Why not ‘Mrs. Tomlinson’ or ‘my wife’?”

“I…because,” Louis said, before shrugging off the question because he didn’t have a reasonable reply. “Why ‘William’s dad’?” Louis shot back gently.

“Because that’s just what he is,” harry said, raising an eyebrow though looking a little amused.

Louis frowned, recalling their run-in earlier in the grocery store. “Does this have to do with that beefy manager of yours calling you ‘Styles’?”

“Yeah, it does,” Harry replied, moving to sit down at the table. “But I think the family talk should be saved for another day. After all, you did promise to help me study and I really don’t want to fail the exam now,” Harry said with a wide grin, and Louis made his way back to the table, water forgotten, for he found himself unable to resist any grin from Mr. Styles.


	6. Chapter 5

“Harry, you know we shouldn’t be doing this.” Louis hissed, eyes widening as the younger boy continued to step closer and closer to him.

“Shouldn’t, but we both want it,” Harry said, his hips pressing against Louis’ and pinning him to the wall.

“My wife will be home any minute. She’s going to find out, she’s-”

“So then shut up,” Harry said, his hand opening Louis’ trousers before slipping into his boxers. “And let me suck you off,” he finished with a grin, giving Louis’ hardening length a squeeze.

“Harry,” Louis said breathlessly in warning.

“Shh,” Harry whispered, sucking a bruising mark into Louis’ neck while his hand massaged. Louis didn’t even give thought to how Eleanor would be able to see the mark. He didn’t think of how it was a symbol of how he was cheating on his wife with a sixteen year old. “Don’t talk. Just fuck my mouth.”

Louis moaned, watching as Harry fell to his knees.

“Louis.”

He fucking loved when Harry said his name.

“Louis.”

Wait, why was Harry’s voice so feminine?

“Oh for god’s sake. Louis! Wake up!”

Louis was quickly startled out of sleep, feeling a hand shove his shoulder roughly and he blinked his eyes quickly as his eyes adjusted to the light. Looking over, he saw Eleanor sitting on the bed and glaring daggers at him.

“What?” he asked, more than annoyed that she pulled him from such a wonderful dream. “What’s wrong?”

“You moaned,” Eleanor replied, voice full of venom. “Then I look over and you’ve got your hand down your fucking pants!”

Louis blinked a few times before looking down. Shit, she was right. How hadn’t he noticed when he first woke up? He supposed he ought to feel a bit bad for apparently starting to jerk off while sleeping, but in all honesty, he didn’t. He was frustrated. So unbelievably sexually frustrated.

“Oh,” he said, turning his head and blinking up at his wife innocently.

“Yeah, oh. Go to the bathroom. So disgusting,” she muttered.

Standing up from the bed, Louis pondered over how him having a hard on made him so disgusting in Eleanor’s eyes. It made no sense to him and also showed how their relationship was truly spiraling down. She would find him so much more disgusting if she knew who had triggered his dream.

God, that dream. Louis wasn’t sure if he ought to be ashamed or embarrassed. Though, as he thought about his dream version of Harry, he thought of how the real Harry probably didn’t talk so filthy. Still, it was such a vivid dream and Louis knew he wasn’t going to have any problems with wanking material for quite a while.

~ * ~

Louis wouldn’t call it stalking. It was definitely, in no way, whatsoever, even remotely close to stalking. He had to go to the grocery store and Tesco was the closest option. Maybe he was seriously hoping that Harry was going to be there. Even if he just saw the boy in passing, he’d be happy. It seemed like ages ago since he had seen Harry, though in reality it was only a few days.

Entering the store, he put his hands into jacket pockets and headed towards the produce section. Eleanor had mentioned wanting something. Some sort of fruit. Fruit. Something with seeds. Red? Or no, was it orange? No, definitely not orange.

He stood in front of the apples, thinking of how he was pretty sure Eleanor wanted something red, and blinked as he looked at the different choices. There were many options, so he just grabbed the reddest one he saw and hoped it was the right fruit. He then headed towards his original reason for coming to Tesco before Eleanor had stopped him when he had been leaving the house to go to the very grocery that Harry worked at- shampoo.

Could he have waited until tomorrow when Eleanor liked to grocery shop? Maybe. Probably. But, he didn’t want to waste the potential chance that Harry was working.

He wasn’t stalking.

Or creeping.

Really.

Making his way to the aisle, he stopped in front of the men’s shampoos and searched for the scent he usually used.

“So that’s the shampoo that makes your hair smell so nice,” and Louis didn’t have to turn around to know exactly who was right against his back and speaking softly into his ear.

He did his best to keep the goofy grin off of his face, then turned his head a little so that he saw Harry’s face so close to his.

“You like the smell of my hair?”

“Mmm, yep,” Harry answered.

Louis kept himself in check and took a step away from Harry so that they weren’t so close. Because being close to Harry was dangerous, extremely dangerous, and Louis didn’t want to give in to temptation. He was married. Harry was sixteen. He was twenty-three. Right.

“How’d your exam go?” he asked, turning and facing the younger boy.

“Alright. I think I passed, though I won’t find out until the grades are posted online.”

“I’m sure you did fine. After all, I’m an excellent tutor.” Louis grinned.

“Yeah, I suppose you’re alright,” Harry said, playfully shoving Louis’ shoulder. “Walk with me while I put this back on the shelf?” he asked.

Louis nodded, following Harry down the aisle and to another one. It was an aisle he had never been to before, one for random little knick-knacks.

“How’s work been going?” Harry asked.

“Work is… work,” Louis replied with a small shrug, carefully tossing the apple in his hand.

He actually had been neglecting thinking about work and found that he really wasn’t being the best customer service representative lately, for he just didn’t give a flying fuck. Not only that, but he still had yet to even think about the performance report that his boss, Mr. Taylor, had requested. And it was past the due date.

“What is it that you do?”

“Customer service for a cutlery company.”

“Well no wonder. Sounds bloody awful,” Harry said, wrinkling his nose a little and Louis couldn’t help but to admire how adorable the small action was.

“It’s…pretty boring.”

“So why don’t you do something else? Surely that wasn’t what you had grown up wanting to do?”

“It’s not that easy, especially as I haven’t been to uni or college.”

“You haven’t?” Harry asked in surprise, stopping in the centre of the aisle.

Louis shook his head, looking a bit sheepish.

“Wasn’t quite in the cards for me. Once Eleanor got pregnant, I had to find a job and find one quickly. It is what it is,” he said. Glancing at the item in Harry’s hand and noticing that it was soup, he frowned because they definitely weren’t in the soup aisle. “Err, don’t think that goes here,” he pointed out.

Harry looked down at the soup can, then back up with a slightly sheepish smile.

“Oh, I know,” he said, stepping forward.

“Then what are we doing here?”

Instead of answering, Harry moved forward even more and pressed his lips to Louis. The light touch though came as a complete surprise, and Louis, startled, jumped back with wide eyes.

“What are you doing?! Anyone can see,” Louis hissed, glancing up and down the aisle quickly.

“No one ever comes down this aisle,” Harry tried to reassure.

“Security cameras?”

“Because of where we are in the aisle, the cameras won’t capture anything. They just don’t get this angle,” Harry said, stepping closer.

“Should I find it alarming that you know this?” Louis mused, a small smile on his face.

“No, but you should put that mouth of yours to much better use for the ten second I have left before I’ve got to go back onto my register,” Harry said.

And Louis really couldn’t argue with that, nor did he want to.

Harry’s lips pressed against his again and Louis welcomed the gently pressure and began to move his mouth in response. There was something about Harry’s lips that really got to him, perhaps because of how full and perfect they were. Harry was also an excellent kisser, clearly knowing how to move his lips in ways that had Louis exhaling soft sighs. As he reached his hand up, wanting to twist his fingers gently in Harry’s curls, Harry pulled back before he could manage to do so.

“I’ve got to go,” Harry mumbled softly, stepping back. “I’ll see you around, Mr. Tomlinson.”

“Yeah. Bye,” Louis managed to reply ineloquently, swallowing as Harry headed out of the aisle and finding that he rather liked the use of his last name just then.

~ * ~

“I can’t believe you got me an apple. An apple,” Eleanor said, pinching her nose and throwing the fruit down on the kitchen counter before turning back to the pan she had on the stove.

“But, it’s red! I was kind of close!”

“I told you to get a tomato! A tomato, Louis! You got me a piece of fruit that in no way will taste good with tacos!” Eleanor said, turning to shoot him a glare before going back to stirring the pan of browning meat.

“Well, at least it’s still a fruit.” Louis blinked.

“Well you know what,” Eleanor said, picking the abandoned apple. “You can eat this with your tacos!” she said, tossing it lightly at Louis. He wasn’t fast enough though, and the apple rebounded off of his arm.

“Abuse!” he cried dramatically, though it honestly didn’t hurt in the slightest.

“Drama king,” Eleanor replied, turning her back to her husband and refocusing on dinner.

Louis rolled his eyes, but whatever he was going to say died on his lips as he heard the phone ring.

“I’ll get it.” He sighed, reaching for the house phone and ignoring Eleanor’s small huff. Clicking the ‘talk’ button on the phone, he then said, “Hello?”

“Hi, is Louis Tomlinson there?”

“This is,” Louis replied, a small frown on his face. The voice sounded familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it over the phone line.

“Hi, it’s Harry.”

There was a moment of silence and Louis glanced over to where Eleanor was cooking, then walked wordlessly out of the room and headed upstairs, away from any prying ears.

“Hey, what’s up? Aren’t you still at work?” he frowned, for he hadn’t left Tesco even an hour ago.

“My manager let me go home and well… my exam grade for maths was posted,” Harry said.

“Oh?” Louis prompted, hoping his tone didn’t sound eager.

“I passed,” Harry breathed, and Louis could hear the happiness in the boy’s voice.

“You did?! That’s great Harry!”

“Yeah, well, it’s all because of your help,” he said. “I’ll have to do something sometime to thank you.”

Louis’ mind came to a stop, trying to keep his thoughts from going to ideas of what Harry could possibly do for, or to, him.

“That’s- that’s not necessary,” Louis said, stumbling slightly over the words. “It was my pleasure to help you.”

“Hmm,” Harry hummed, almost sounding thoughtful. “Well, it’ll be my pleasure to make it up to you,” he said, his tone lowering a little.

Louis knew that his eyes had widened from that little statement. Harry was only sixteen, a fact he was constantly reminding himself, and he wasn’t sure whether to be excited or concerned over what Harry had just implied.

“Oh crap, I’ve got to go,” Harry said quickly before Louis could reply. “Mum’s home and she’ll want to know about the exam. I’ll uhh, I’ll talk to you soon. Hopefully. Bye,” Harry said quickly, and before Louis could reply the line die.

He pulled the phone down from his ear, looking at it for a moment before turning it off.

“Louis!” Eleanor yelled up the stairs. “I thought I told you to get extra lettuce as well!”

Louis groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. He had completely forgotten. He couldn’t help it though, not when he had thoughts of Harry running through his mind constantly. That damn boy was going to be the death of him.


	7. Chapter 6

“Tomlinson. My office. Now.”

Louis looked up to see his boss, Mr. Taylor, standing near his desk before walking off. He ignored the inquisitive look that one of his coworkers was throwing him and wordlessly stood up and made his way to the office. Truthfully, he had been expecting this moment and was surprised it had taken so damn look for the impromptu meeting to occur. Then again, the company did have many employee files to look over, and measly customer service reps were probably near the bottom of the list. 

“Take a seat,” Mr. Taylor said as soon as Louis entered.

The large man then shut the shut the door as Louis slipped into the seat. Part of him was nervous, though he had a feeling as to what to expect from this meeting. The door shutting was a huge indication as well.

“So, we’ve looked over the report that you handed in on why you’re an asset to this company,” Mr. Taylor said, sitting down on the either side of the desk. He slipped his glasses down, peering at Louis with narrowed eyes. “Did you think you were being funny?”

“No, sir,” Louis said quickly, his face adorned with practiced innocence.

“Right.” Mr. Taylor snorted, picking up a file from his desk. “‘I love answering the phones and giving the customers a hard time. They deserve it. Half of them are so bloody daft, that they wouldn’t realize if we shoved the cutlery up their asses,’” he quoted, before throwing the file down on the desk.

“Well, that’s very true, sir,” Louis said with a small nod. “Half the time I get calls about the proper knives to use for cutting certain foods. I mean, isn’t it pretty damn obvious to use a steak knife to cut steak?”

“These are our customers! The ones that are fueling that paycheck you get every other week! You’ve got to answer them respectfully and patiently. I don’t give two shits as to what the question may be.”

“Maybe if the paycheck was better,” Louis said, stretching his legs out a little bit.

“Well now you won’t be getting any,” Mr. Taylor said shortly. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, Tomlinson. You used to be a great customer service representative. Now you’ve turned quite disrespectful. I wish you the best in finding another job,” and Louis could pick up all the sarcasm in that last sentence.

“Right, thank you, sir. It was a pleasure working for your company,” Louis said, standing up and flashing the beefy man one last smile before heading out of the office.

It was almost with a small skip in his step that he headed back to his desk and began to grab and pack the few things that he had.

“What happened?” Peter, his coworker that sat at a desk next to him asked.

“Fired,” Louis replied, no hint of sorrow in his voice.

“I’m sorry, man. That sucks,” Peter said sincerely.

“No, it’s brilliant. Have fun working for this awful company, getting a lousy paycheck and constant headaches.”

And with that, Louis left Tottham’s Cutlery headquarters without one single flying fuck. Of course, his happiness was going to quickly dissipate once he went home.

~ * ~

“What the fuck do you mean you were fired?!” Eleanor shouted.

“Shh, Nathan’s watching the telly,” Louis said, throwing one pointed look at the doorway that connected the kitchen to the sitting room.

“I don’t care right now! You lost your job. You lost your bloody job,” Eleanor said, her voice almost desperate as if she really couldn’t fathom how it had happened. “Why don’t you seem at all concerned?”

Louis stared down at the kitchen table where he was sat, suddenly feeling like he was about to get a lecture from his wife who was pacing the floor of the room.

“I hated it there.”

“So? It was money.”

“It didn’t make me happy!”

“Well maybe this doesn’t make me happy,” Eleanor snapped back, waving her hand in the air as if motioning to everything around them. “But you don’t see me quitting or giving up.”

“Well why don’t you?”

Silence washed over the two, the tension thick as Louis looked up at his wife with a challenging expression.

“Is that what you want? I’ve just wanted what’s best for Nathan-”

“Well, living in a house with two parents who clearly don’t love each other or get along isn’t what’s best. Is it?” Louis pointed.

Eleanor had no argument to that. She instead just pinched the bridge of her nose as if holding back the threat of tears.

“I’m going to take Nathan and go to my mum and dad’s for the night,” she said shakily. “I just…I need to think. I need to talk to them. I need to get out of here for a bit.”

Louis nodded wordlessly, watching as his wife left the room to gather things and Nathan. He figured that perhaps what she had in mind to do really wasn’t all that bad of an idea. It was about damn time he paid his mum a visit.

~ * ~

Louis stood on the front steps of his family home. To him, this place was home and always would be, not that place where he lived with Eleanor. He heard a crash followed by a yell through the door, his mum’s voice soon echoing loudly as well. God, he missed his family. It had only been over a month since he had seen them over the holidays, but it really felt like forever ago.

He hesitated between knocking and just opening the door, but decided on the latter. After all, even though he didn’t live there, that didn’t make it any less his home. He poked his head through the front door, then eased it open all the way and stepped inside.

“Phoebe! I swear! Give that shirt back to your sister now!” he heard his mum’s voice carry from the hallway.

“But, mum! She said I could borrow it!”

“Did not! You stole it from my dresser!”

He heard his mum’s aggravated sigh and couldn’t help but to chuckle to himself. He debated between going to the laundry room where he knew the argument was taking place with his mum and twin sisters, but then decided to just quietly head to the kitchen. He began preparing himself a cup of tea, taking the hot water in the kettle as an open invitation.

A sudden shriek, followed by a loud thump, and Louis turned to see his mum standing in the doorway with shocked expression and a laundry basket at her feet.

“Louis!” Jay cried, gently kicking the laundry basket to the side and moving over to her son.

Louis closed his eyes, relaxing into his mother’s tight hold and sighing softly. He didn’t know why he didn’t visit home that often. It wasn’t as if he really lived that far away.

“Louis?” he heard Daisy say, and he opened his eyes and pulled back from hugging his mum so that he could greet his sisters.

“What are you doing here?” Phoebe added, rushing forward.

“That’s what I’d like to know as well,” Jay said. “Not that you aren’t welcome here, of course.”

“Just…felt like visiting,” he answered with a small shrug, though his mum’s gaze told him that she saw right through that lie.

“Girls, why don’t you go finish getting ready for dance. Lottie will drive you there tonight.”

“But Louis just got here!” Daisy said, looking at her mum sadly.

“No buts. I’ll make sure he stays for when you come back,” Jay said.

“You better Louis,” Phoebe threatened, before the twins ran off to go get ready.

“So Lottie’s still refusing to go back to college?”

“Yes,” Jay sighed, moving to the kettle on the stove and preparing herself a cup of tea. “She seems to think she’ll be just fine without a college education and that she’ll find ways to make loads of money. I told her I didn’t raise my daughter to be a prostitute. Now come on, sit down. Where’s my grandson at?” she said, moving to the table.

“With his mum,” Louis replied, sitting down at the table and cradling the cup of tea in his hands.

“And where’s his mum?” Jay prompted.

“She…she went to see her parents,” Louis answered, dropping his gaze and staring determinedly down at the tea.

“I see,” Jay said. “Come on Louis, it’s like pulling teeth with you tonight. What’s wrong?”

“I got fired,” he sighed.

At his mother’s silence, he lifted his gaze, seeing the surprise on her face.

“But you’ve been there for years,” she breathed.

“Yeah, which is probably why I don’t care about that place anymore. I just… you know when I was little, mum, and I said I wanted to be a spaceman when I grew up? Or then how I wanted to be a football player, but turned out to really not be that great. Then in school when I wanted to be a drama teacher. I… where did I go wrong?” he asked brokenly.

“Oh, Lou,” Jay said softly, moving her chair closer to her son and grasping his wrist lightly with her hand. Her thumb ran comfortingly over his skin and Louis did all he could to not completely break down and cry. “You had to make sacrifices. You took responsibility for your actions, love.”

“So because I fucked up when I was younger, all my dreams are supposed to be ruined forever?” he asked.

Jay didn’t flinch from the curse word that fell from his lips or reprimand him. Instead she just looked at him sadly.

“Those dreams may be hard to obtain, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make new ones. What did Eleanor say when you told her you were fired?”

“Implied that I should have stayed at work, even though I wasn’t happy. Just like how she’s staying with me, even if she’s unhappy.”

Jay exhaled slowly before saying, “I knew the two of you getting married so young was an awful idea.”

“But her parents-”

“I know it’s what her parents wanted, but that doesn’t mean it was what was best. Marrying when you’re not even in love is never the right thing.”

“How do you know we weren’t in love?” Louis protested, though he knew his mother was right.

“You loved her, sure, but you were never in love. There is a difference. Honestly, I had seen you much happier with that friend of yours…what was his name? Paul?”

“Mum!” he said quickly, hoping that he wasn’t flushing.

“I’m surprised you never dated him,” Jay continued as if she hadn’t heard her son.

“We were just friends!”

“Hmm,” she hummed before saying, “Well how was I to know! You always seemed so happy to run off to that fort you made by the creek. Imagine my surprise the day you came home crying and saying you knocked up your girlfriend.”

“We are not having this conversation about Paul,” Louis muttered.

Jay laughed lightly before saying gently, “You know that wouldn’t have bothered me at all, right?”

“What?” Louis asked in confusion.

“If you had been dating Paul. You could be with whoever you want, as long as they make you happy.”

Louis nibbled at his bottom lip before saying, “Thanks, mum,” though he had a feeling that certain sixteen-year-old boy did not apply.

“Of course, Boo. Now, you’re staying for dinner. Let me go make sure that Lottie’s taking Phoebe and Daisy to dance, and that Fizz is doing her homework and not on the internet. You better not leave,” she said, standing and shooting him a look.

“I’m staying. Don’t worry,” he promised, figuring that there really was nothing better than being around family at the current time.

~ * ~

After dinner, Louis had driven home with a smile on his face because of the mood seeing his family had left him in. His sisters had been more than overjoyed with him staying for dinner and he made them the promise that he would return next week with Nathan in tow.

Toeing off his shoes at the door, he yawned as he headed towards the living room and turned the telly on. He flipped through the channels without much mind as to what was on, finding though that he really wasn’t in the mood for watching the news.

The sound of the phone ringing made him groan, for he didn’t understand who in their right bloody mind would be calling so late at night. Still, he pushed himself to his feet and grabbed it, pressing the button and muttering a, slightly curious, “Hello?”

“Louis?” a voice asked quietly and almost timidly, and Louis didn’t even have to figure out who it was.

“Harry? What’s wrong?”

“I…I didn’t know who to call. I don’t want my mum to see…my friends…I thought of you and I’m sorry. I just don’t know what to do. Can you come get me? Please?” Harry rambled, his voice sounding exhausted and broken.

“Of course,” Louis said instantly, moving to grab his keys, wallet, jacket, and shoes. “Where are you?”

“Do you…do you know where Fletcher’s Pub is?”

Louis frowned, his mind trying to picture it. From what he remembered, and if the place he was thinking of was indeed Fletcher’s Pub, then it was a good twenty minutes out of town.

“That dodgy place? Where they’ve got weird chips?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Harry said with a small chuckle. “I’m about a block or so down to the left of it.”

“I’ll be there soon,” he promised.

“Thank you,” Harry breathed, and with all the reluctance in the world, Louis hung up the phone.

After glancing down at the caller ID, he made sure to put the phone number that Harry called him from, undoubtedly a cell number, into his own cell phone. He then set off, curious and anxious as to why Harry needed him.

~ * ~

Louis drove slowly as he went past Fletcher’s Pub, a huge difference compared to the speed with which he drove to get there. He kept his eyes peeled for Harry, noting that the flats around the pub were all just as dodgy as Fletcher’s was.

He came to a slow stop when he saw a huddled figure sitting at the curb a block down. Putting down the window, he was almost hesitant as to whether it really was Harry or not.

“Harry?” he asked, a sigh of relief soon escaping his mouth as the person’s head popped up and it was in fact Harry.

The curly haired boy quickly stood and moved towards the car, and Louis unlocked the doors immediately so that Harry could enter.

“Thanks,” Harry mumbled, eyes downcast on his lap.

Louis frowned, then turned the light inside the car on and gently moved Harry’s chin to look at his face. His nose was bloody and swelling, his cheek red with the outline of a large handprint, and jaw beginning to bruise.

“What happened?” Louis whispered.

“I…” but Harry froze and Louis watched as the boy’s eyes squeezed shut. Harry let out a slow sigh before opening his eyes, which were wet from unshed tears.

“Harry, where is this place? Is whoever hurt you in there?” he tried again, suddenly feeling a rush of protectiveness fill him.

“My dad’s house,” Harry answered. “And it doesn’t matter. Just…drive, please.”

Louis gently let go of Harry’s chin and nodded, taking the car out of ‘park’ and beginning to drive. As much as he wanted answers or to go in and attempt to attack whoever, presumably Harry’s dad, had done this, he couldn’t say no to the broken, bloodied, bruised boy.


	8. Chapter 7

Louis turned the car ignition off once he was parked outside of a rather dingy motel that was just on the outskirts of town. He turned in his seat to glance at Harry and saw the boy eyeing the motel curiously.

“I…I’m not sure where else to go,” Louis explained. “You said you didn’t want to go home and I don’t know what time Eleanor will be home. If you don’t want-”

“No, this is fine,” Harry said, unbuckling his seat. As he opened the door and started to climb out he threw Louis a curious look. “Aren’t you coming?” he asked, soon shutting the door.

That snapped Louis back into action because, duh, Harry was a minor and how else was he supposed to get a room? Not only that, but Louis wanted answers.

Climbing out of the car, he locked the doors behind him and stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets as he followed Harry to the small office. Harry took a seat in one of the old, worn down, dirty couches as Louis went to the main desk and got a room. The man at the desk threw Harry a curious look, undoubtedly because of how his face looked, but said nothing.

“Room 209,” the man said, handing over a set of keys. “It’ll take three days for the charge to show up on your account.”

“Right,” Louis mumbled, his mind already searching for a possible explanation to feed Eleanor as to why their account was charged for a cheap motel room. 

He walked over to Harry, cocking his head towards the door and the boy immediately jumped to his feet and followed. They walked in silence up the stairs and past the other motel rooms. Once they reached Room 209, Louis jiggled the key through the lock, then opened the door to let Harry in.

The room really was nothing special. In fact, it was just about as dingy as the main office had been. Harry went immediately to the bathroom, groaning when he saw his face through the mirror, and Louis couldn’t help but to wince sympathetically. He soon followed, standing next to Harry and looking at his beaten face.

“How the hell am I going to hide this?” Harry asked, nearly glaring at the swells and bruising marks.

“Don’t think you can,” Louis said gently. “There’s no way your mum isn’t going to notice.”

“I know,” Harry sighed, looking defeated. “I didn’t think it was all that bad.”

Louis nodded, though really, he wondered how Harry could think such a thing. Based on just the appearance of the marks, Louis knew that Harry had to have been in a ridiculous amount of pain. He reached for one of the cheap white hand towels that was hanging on a rack and then carefully wet it with cold water.

“Come on,” he murmured, gently taking Harry’s hand in his. “Let’s go try and clean this up the best we can.”

Harry didn’t make any protests, following as Louis lead him to the bed and then took a seat on the edge of it. Louis kneeled on the ground in front of him, biting his lip as he held the towel to Harry’s face and began to gently clean the dried blood. Harry hissed immediately at the contact, pulling his head back a little and away from Louis’ touch.

“I’m sorry,” Louis said quickly. “Just… the faster we get this done, the better.”

Harry nodded, though made no movement to move his head towards Louis’ waiting hand. With the hand that wasn’t holding the towel, Louis moved his hand to the back of Harry’s head, gently holding it in place. He watched as Harry’s eyes squeezed shut, clearly waiting for Louis’ touch. Louis began to carefully clean his face again, whispering sayings of encouragement to try and distract Harry. Once his face was free of blood, Louis pulled the towel back and pushed himself to his feet.

“All set,” he said, moving towards the bathroom and throwing the towel into the sink.

Shuffling back towards where Harry was, he hesitated with whether he should take a seat on one of the chairs that was at the table or sit on the bed next to Harry. He really didn’t know what the proper sort of protocol was for situations like this, though, he supposed that there really weren’t any. They were already going past all acceptable social boundaries, be it by age, gender, or Louis’ marital status.

“You can sit you know,” Harry said, tone slightly amused. “You did pay for this place after all. I can give you money tomorrow.”

“No, it’s fine,” Louis said quickly, not wanting to take any of Harry’s money. He was sure that Harry really didn’t make that much at Tesco. Then again, it wasn’t as if he had a steady paycheck coming in anymore. “Don’t worry about it.”

“If you’re sure,” Harry said slowly. “Seriously though, you can sit. I think we both know you want to start the inquisition.”

Louis really couldn’t argue with that and moved to sit on the edge of the bed. He felt awkward, completely out of place, and drummed his fingertips on top of his legs.

“It’s like you’ve never been on a bed with a guy before,” Harry said lightly, voice full of teasing.

“Well, I haven’t,” Louis answered truthfully, forcing himself not to flush over what they were so casually discussing.

“Wait, really? You’ve never been with a guy before?” Harry asked, and Louis saw his eyebrows raise a considerable amount.

“I mean, not like…not like that. I’ve kissed a guy befo- wait. This is not the type of inquisition that I had in mind,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m supposed to be asking the questions and you’re supposed to be answering.”

“Right, right,” Harry said, nodding his head a bit. “Well, I’ve been fucked by one guy before and have kissed a few.”

“Harry!” Louis said quickly, pushing the curiosity out of his mind and instead trying to focus on what he wanted to discuss.

“Oh, was that not what you meant by answers?” Harry asked, blinking innocently.

“I think you know what I want to talk about,” Louis said, reaching over and taking Harry’s chin gently in his fingers. “Who did this to you?”

Harry sighed slowly, the smile vanishing from his face almost immediately.

“My dad,” he answered, eyes downcast even though Louis was still holding his chin. “Not that he really deserves to be called that.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Louis quickly agreed. “Why?” he asked softly.

“I…I took a cab out to see him. I mean, I don’t see him much, which is fine with me, I don’t need him. But…I…I didn’t want to lie anymore about all the girls he thought I was banging. So I told him.”

“That you’re gay?” Louis filled in softly.

“Yeah,” Harry breathed, eyes blinking quickly and Louis watched as Harry fought the tears from spilling. “That I’m gay.”

“So he did this to you?” Louis asked, dropping his hand from Harry’s chin and resting his hand on Harry’s leg.

“Yeah, said that he didn’t fuck my mum so that she could give birth to a cocksucker, and that maybe he could just beat the faggot out of me.”

“Oh, Harry,” Louis said brokenly, his heart aching as he looked at the boy next to him.

“I know…I know deep down that I really shouldn’t care what he thinks because he’s pathetic and awful, but that’ll still never change the fact that he’s my father and that I’ll always be related to him,” Harry whispered.

“Look at me,” Louis urged gently so that Harry’s gaze lifted. “I don’t want you ever going back there. He could have really hurt you. Hell, it sounds like he wanted to hurt you even more than he did. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

Harry nodded, wiping his eyes with the pad of his thumb, before saying, “I won’t. I promise.”

“Good,” Louis whispered. He saw the clear exhaustion on Harry’s face and that natural paternal instinct kicked in. “You need sleep,” he said gently, standing up from the bed.

“Wait,” Harry said quickly, reaching out and taking Louis’ wrist in his hand, preventing him from leaving. “Could you…could you just stay with me tonight?”

Louis gave a small nod and said, “I’ll be on that couch.”

“No, I meant…here. In the bed,” Harry said. As if picking up Louis’ reluctance he continued with a small smile, “I promise I’ll behave and keep my hands to myself for tonight.”

Louis chewed on his bottom lip, debating whether or not that was really a good idea.

“Alright,” he finally said, and the smile on Harry’s face made him wonder why he was reluctant in the first place. He began to take off his jacket and trainers, watching out of the corner of his eyes when Harry began to shrug his clothes off. “What are you doing?” he asked, eyes wide when Harry stripped down to only his boxers.

“I hate sleeping in clothes,” Harry replied. “I’ll keep the boxers on for tonight though. Don’t want to tempt you too much,” he winked.

Louis rolled his eyes, wondering how it was that Harry was able to be so broken and sad one moment, then cheeky and quick the next.

“Much appreciated,” he mumbled, leaving his t-shirt on, but shrugging off his pants so that he was down to just his boxers.

He felt Harry’s eyes on him, but ignored looking at the boy and instead quickly slipped under the covers of the made bed. Harry soon joined him and he flicked the light switch off, bathing the room in complete darkness. He shifted on the bed, settling down comfortably and closing his eyes.

“Louis?”

“Hmm?” he hummed.

“Just… thank you.”

His eyes fluttered open and he turned to see Harry facing him, complete gratitude written on his face. Before he could think much of it, he tilted his head forward and lightly pecked Harry’s lips.

“It’s no problem,” he whispered, pulling back and settling into the pillows. “Now sleep.”

“Okay, okay,” Harry replied, and Louis watched to make sure Harry’s eyes closed.

Content with the knowledge that Harry was going to fall asleep, he allowed his own eyes to close and fell asleep as well.

~ * ~

The feel of warm lips brushing against his own pulled Louis from his sleep, though, if that was how he were to be woken up, he didn’t mind in the slightest. He felt those same lips glide over his jaw line, pressing slow, lazy kisses on his skin.

He hummed before mumbled, “What was said about behaving?” without even opening his eyes.

He heard Harry’s throaty chuckle and an answer of, “I believe I said something along the lines of ‘I’ll behave and keep my hands to myself tonight’. Seeing as it is now morning, behaving doesn’t quite apply.”

Louis’ eyes fluttered open and his eyes met Harry’s bright ones.

“Morning,” Harry said, smiling.

Louis glanced at the marks on Harry’s face, relieved that the swelling had gone down considerably.

“Morning,” he replied.

“So, I’m thinking about making it a really good morning for you,” Harry said, pressing a soft kiss to Louis’ lips.

“Err, what?” Louis blinked. He soon felt a hand brush over his crotch and his eyebrows flew up. “Harry!” he admonished.

“What?” the younger boy asked. “I said that I owed you for helping me with Maths.”

“You don’t have to do anything.”

“You also helped me last night.”

“You still don’t have to do anything.”

“What if I want to?” Harry asked, raising an eyebrow challengingly.

“I’m married,” Louis pointed out.

“Yeah? And how’s that been going lately?” Harry asked. “Funny how you spent the whole night here with me without one mention of your wife. Also funny how you’ve woken up completely hard as if you haven’t been touched in ages,” Harry said, his hand moving over to Louis’ crotch again and giving it a gentle squeeze.

Louis hissed, for fuck, it had been ages since someone else had touched. And now the boy who had been fueling his fantasies lately was propositioning him.

“It’s still cheating,” he protested, rather half-heartedly though.

“Who’s going to tell? Not me,” Harry said, his hand moving under the waistband of Louis’ boxers.

He felt Harry’s hand wrap firmly around him, not giving him the chance to come up with another protest, and instead instantly groaned at the contact.

“I would suck you off, but my jaws a bit sore. Hope this’ll do for now,” Harry said, causing Louis’ mind to flash with images that had him bucking his hips into Harry’s warm hand.

“This is so wrong,” he said with a small moan, eyes fluttering shut as Harry’s hand began to speed up along his length. “You’re sixteen,” he muttered. “Fucking sixteen.”

“Actually, I’m seventeen. You missed my birthday,” Harry said, mouth near Louis’ ear as he breathed a light laugh into it. “Guess you’ll have to find a way to make it up to me sometime,” he said, nipping at the shell of Louis’ ear.

“Oh fuck,” Louis hissed.

“Well, yeah, that’s one possible way,” Harry said, thumb brushing against the head of Louis’ cock.

It was almost infuriating how much of a tease Harry was. Louis could hardly keep up with the quick comments, perhaps because he was blown away with how much he actually liked to hear them. In an embarrassingly short amount of time, Louis felt himself coming in Harry’s hand, the warm liquid getting soaked up by his boxers as he moaned loudly. Harry pulled his hand out of them, leaning to place another quick kiss on his lips.

“Now, as much as I’d love to stay here, I’ve really got to get home. You’ll probably want to shower first though,” Harry said, climbing out of the bed and beginning to dress.

Louis’ eyes opened and he pushed himself up to get ready, the dizzying feeling almost overwhelming as he thought of what he had allowed to just happen.


	9. Chapter 8

Louis stirred the pot of soup on the stove, relieved that he had managed to not mess up that one little thing. Though, really, it wasn’t as if he could easily screw up heating canned soup. As much as he tried, he just was not the slightest bit skilled in the kitchen. It was a shame for poor Nathan, who had two parents who were both awful cooks.

He heard the front door open, the sound of light running feet followed by the sound of heels clicking against tiles. He gripped the spoon in his hand tightly, bracing himself for facing his wife after their small argument and his moment of infidelity.

“Hi,” Eleanor said tiredly, entering the kitchen.

Louis turned around, trying to keep any guilty expressions off of his face.

“Hi,” he said, glancing around and figuring Nathan had gone up to his room. “How was your parents’?”

“Could have gone better. They weren’t happy,” Eleanor said, leaning against the opposite countertop and crossing her arms lightly over her chest.

“About?”

“About the fact that I want a divorce,” she whispered, eyes dropping to the ground.

Louis stilled, his mouth opening a little as he tried to think of what could possibly be said in that moment. This was good though, wasn’t it? Eleanor wanted a divorce. They could be free to do whatever they wanted, free to be happy. Why though, did he still feel that sharp pain in his chest as he stared at his wife of nearly seven years?

Perhaps that was just it. For seven years they had lived through a certain routine and now it was going to be completely upset and they’d have to readjust. But it was not just their own lives that would have to be readjusted, it was also Nathan’s. Louis knew what it was like growing up without both a mother and father in the household, though, he supposed that what he and Eleanor were doing now was far from providing the perfect home environment for their son.

“Say something,” Eleanor pleaded, and Louis’ eyes snapped to look at his wife.

“Do we…do we have to get separate lawyers? How do we even go about dividing things? And then there’s the house and…”

Eleanor let out a shaky laugh and shook her head.

“Funny how you’re not even protesting to this,” she said.

“Well, I think we both know that it’s been a long time coming,” Louis pointed out. “We…we don’t even kiss anymore El.”

Eleanor nodded and ran a hand through her brown locks.

“Right, well, I guess we get separate lawyers. I’ll have mine contact yours to set up a meeting,” she said, pushing herself off of the counter she had been leaning against and beginning to head out of the room.

“Wait, where are you going?” he asked.

“My parents. You can’t honestly expect me to want to stay here,” she said.

“But…but we’re alright,” he frowned. “I’ll stay in the guest room like I have been and then you-”

“Oh, but we’re not alright, Louis,” Eleanor said, talking to him as if he were a child and the entire situation was one that he had difficulty grasping. “We’re getting a divorce after nearly seven years. We’ve been together for eight. You… you lost your fucking job. Things are not alright. I’m taking Nathan with me tonight, he’s packing up some of his toys. I suppose you can come and get him at some point during the week,” she said, turning on her heel and leaving the room completely.

Louis stood where he was, mouth gaped open a little, and suddenly never felt more alone than he did in that moment.

~ * ~

There really was not much for Louis to do at home. Now that he didn’t have a job, he mostly just sat around and moped in front of the telly. He avoided phone calls from his mum, who was undoubtedly trying to figure out if he was going to be coming ‘round for dinner with Nathan at all soon. He just wasn’t ready to admit it all out loud. He wasn’t ready to say that he was the one who had really fucked everything up in the end.

Without much to do, Louis found himself going to Tesco often. Perhaps it was his subconscious telling him that Harry would provide a nice distraction, though, whenever he did spot a head of brown, curly locks, he ducked around the corner and ashamedly hid. It was as if there was this natural panic inside of him. How was he going to tell Harry, “Oh yes, I’m getting a divorce.” Would Harry be sympathetic? Tell him it was about bloody time? Not even want him anymore? What if the appeal, the ‘married man who clearly was unhappy with his pathetic life’, was gone?

On one particular visit, he had loaded up a basket with things to make a stew. He knew it was a huge risk attempting to make dinner for himself and Nathan from scratch, but he had been watching loads of cooking shows since nothing else was really all that interesting on the television.

Heading towards the cashiers, he let out a small, relieved sigh when a new line was just opening up and he began to place his items on the belt.

“Do you have a Tesco club card?” the kid asked, already beginning to ring up the groceries.

“Oh, yeah,” Louis mumbled, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his wallet.

He took the card out and passed it to the kid, who then swiped it and began to hand it back. The kid froze though, eyes locked on the name on the back of the card and then looked up at Louis with a suddenly thrilled expression.

“So you’re Louis Tomlinson,” he said, and Louis took the card back with a slightly weary expression.

“Uh, yeah?” he answered.

The dark-haired boy turned to the register next to him and Louis’ eyes suddenly locked on Harry. Harry bit his lip as they made eye contact, then shot the dark-haired boy a pleading expression. The boy seemed to have none of it though, and instead turned back to Louis with a wide grin.

“So,” he began, voice lowered as if cautious of the people around. “Has Harry sucked you off yet?”

Louis’ eyes widened and he made a small choking sound, for that was, quite possibly, the last thing that he had expected to be asked.

“Excuse me?” he whispered harshly.

“I’m only asking because he’s got an excellent mouth. The things those lips can do,” the boy trailed off, almost wistfully, as he continued to scan the groceries.

“Zayn, shut up,” Louis heard Harry plead, not even mindful of the customer he was helping at his own register.

Louis looked back at the Zayn bloke, suddenly wondering how much he knew and how exactly he knew about Harry’s lips.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” the Zayn kid continued. “Harry’s a pretty decent guy, and I’m not just talking about his shagging skills. He’s a good friend as well and is –oof!”

“My peach!” the customer who Harry had been helping cried, for the fruit had flown out of Harry’s hand and hit Zayn in the back.

Louis was torn between amusement, embarrassment, and painful curiosity, and instead focused on just bagging up his groceries as Zayn mouthed a foul word at Harry. Once all the groceries were rung up, not even muttering another word to Zayn, he handed over the money and gathered up his bags.

Just as he was about to leave, he heard Harry’s voice call out and question, “I’ll see you soon, Lou?”

Louis turned on his foot, looking back at the seventeen year old and nodded. He gave him a smile, unable to keep away the pleased feeling that Harry still wanted to see him and, for now, that was what mattered.

~ * ~

After his stop at the grocery store, Louis had gone and picked up Nathan from Eleanor’s parents’ house. To say that it had been an awkward meeting would be an understatement. Eleanor’s father had glared daggers at him, and Louis had never wanted to disappear into thin air more than in that moment. Nathan was excited to see him though, running at him with open arms, so that had made the glaring all worth it.

“So, I’m going to make dinner tonight,” Louis announced as they entered the house and he placed Nathan’s two bags on the floor by the stairs.

Nathan’s brow furrowed a little before saying, “But…but dad, you can’t cook. Neither you or mummy can.”

“Hey, I’ll have you know that I’ve been watching cooking shows on the telly lots!” Louis smiled, reaching out and ruffling his son’s hair a little. “Though, if it does turn out bad, don’t tell your mum.”

“Okay,” Nathan laughed. “Can I go watch TV for a little bit?” he asked, his eyelashes fluttering a little as his face was adorned with an expression which screamed innocence.

“Alright,” Louis said, knowing he couldn’t say no to his son. “But not for very long, just until I’ve got dinner going. Then maybe we could play a game?” he suggested slowly, hoping his son would be keen to do so.

Nathan nodded excitedly, then scampered off into the sitting room. Louis chuckled to himself, picking up the few grocery bags and starting to head towards the kitchen. He froze though when there was a gentle knock on the front door, then dropped the bags and went to open it. He blinked, eyes wide when he saw Harry standing with a sheepish expression on the front steps.

“What are…what are you doing here?” he breathed.

“You uh, forgot one of your bags at Tesco. Just wanted to drop it off,” Harry said, handing the bag over.

“How did you know where I live?” he frowned, taking the bag and looking inside to see that it had been the meat for the planned stew.

“Err,” Harry began, pushing his curls back a little and licking his bottom lip. “Would it…would it creep you out if I told you it involved using your info linked to your Tesco card?”

Louis blinked before smiling wryly.

“Just a bit creepy,” he admitted. “But because it’s you, I can look past it.” Harry looked relieved as he smiled back at Louis. “I could have come back and picked it up if you just called.”

“Nah, it’s alright. Zayn owed me anyway for earlier,” he said, cocking his head a little and motioning to where Zayn was sitting in a parked car on the driveway.

“Right,” Louis said, pulling his eyes off of Zayn who had waved almost cheekily at him. “He’s your uhh, he’s your friend?” he asked carefully.

“Yeah, a friend. We used to sort of be more, as he hinted at,” Harry answered with a small shrug. “Just friends now though. Promise.” Louis nodded, a feeling of relief sweeping through him. “You know,” Harry began offhandedly. “Jealousy is rather cute on you.”

"I’m not jealous!" Louis denied quickly.

“Really,” Harry drawled with a wide grin.

Louis decided that a change in subject was much needed, not wanting to soon become a blushing idiot, and said, “Well, thanks for dropping this off. You saved tonight’s dinner.”

“No problem,” Harry replied instantly, soon looking through the doorway as if to make sure that no one was around. He shifted forward, almost as if giving Louis a chance to back up, and then said, “Call me or something, if you want. I just…I just feel like you’ve been avoiding me after what happened.”

Louis bit back the reply that he had been avoiding Harry and instead smiled and offered a quiet, “I will.”

Before he could say anything else, he felt Harry’s soft, warm lips pressing against his own and he clutched onto the doorframe so that he didn’t fall from the sudden dizzying touch. His other hand that had been holding the bag of meat released it, allowing it to fall to the ground with a small thump. Harry gently reached out and gripped his hips, shuffling the two of them so that they were just inside of the house and away from any potential eyes of prying neighbours. As his tongue swept across Harry’s bottom lip and he was pushed against the wall next to the door, he heard the sound of a car horn obnoxiously going off.

Harry pulled back with a small groan.

“Zayn,” he muttered. “I’ve got to go,” he said, quickly shifting away from Louis. “We’ll talk soon?”

Louis nodded numbly as he watched Harry leave and then get into the car, the curly-haired boy hitting Zayn in the head before they drove off. Sighing, he shut the door and picked up the abandoned grocery bags. He headed towards the kitchen but froze when he saw his timid six-year-old son peeping his head through the doorway of the sitting room.

“Nate,” he breathed.

“Why were you kissing Harry?” Nathan asked, face scrunched slightly in confusion.

“It’s not what it looked like, buddy,” Louis said desperately.

“That was kissing! I know what kissing is!” he said, a hint of pride in his voice as if he was happy to be old enough to know what such things were.

“Shit,” Louis muttered, chewing nervously on his lip. If Nathan breathed a word of this to Eleanor, then the divorce attorneys would have much more than just his lack of job to throw in his face. “Nathan, just don’t mention this to mum, alright?” he asked, feeling completely torn over the fact that he was pretty much asking Nathan to lie. But it wasn’t quite lying, was it, if it was just withholding the truth?

“Why not? Do you not like kissing Harry?”

Louis let out a choking sound before fumbling through the excuse, “Well, we don’t want to hurt mummy’s feelings if she found out I kissed someone, right? We want mummy to be happy.”

Nathan thought carefully over the answer and then nodded.

“Okay,” he agreed. “I won’t tell.”

Louis let out a slow sigh before saying, “Why don’t you go back to watching the telly while I get started on dinner. Then we can play any game you want.”

“Yay!” Nathan cheered, running off to the sitting room and back to the TV, and Louis pushed away the worry that he was going to have to bribe his son to uphold the small lie.


	10. Chapter 9

“Hello?”

“Hi, it’s Harry.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“You…know?”

“Caller I.D.”

“Oh, right. Obvious answer. I was just wondering if you were doing something tonight. There’s this movie I really want to see, but Zayn said he couldn’t go because he’s going to go and see it with Liam tomorrow. So, I just figured, maybe you’d like to see it. If not then that’s totally fine, I just wanted to offer in case-”

“Harry, you’re rambling.”

“Oh. Right. Sorry.”

“So are you sort of asking me out?”

“Err. I…I guess. Technically…if that’s okay.”

“No, I mean, yeah, it’s fine. I just…can I take a raincheck on that? I’m going to my mum’s tonight.”

“Oh yeah, yeah that’s fine.”

“Sorry. Another time though?”

“Yeah. Have uhh, have fun at your mum’s.”

“Thanks. I’ll talk to you soon?”

“Definitely.”

~ * ~

“Is there anything that I can do?” Louis asked, watching his mum grab a dish out of the oven and place it on top of the stove.

“Lou, for the hundredth time- no,” Jay answered, taking the oven mitts off of her hands and tossing them playfully at her son.

“Well what if I-”

“Louis! It’s not that I don’t trust you around the food, though maybe that is it a little, but it’s all set. Your sisters already set the table, so there’s really nothing else for you to do.”

“Oh. I was just going to offer to pour you a glass of wine.” Louis blinked.

“Well you can go on and do that,” Jay said with a small smile. “Then call your sisters and your son for dinner.”

Louis nodded, heading towards the fridge and taking out the chilled white wine. He poured his mum a glass and then himself one, having every intention of him and Nathan staying the night. After handing his mum the glass, he headed to the sitting room where Phoebe and Daisy were playing a game with Nathan.

“Hey! That’s cheating Daisy!” Phoebe cried, throwing the paper money on the board angrily.

“Is not! Did I cheat Nathan?” Daisy asked, turning to Nathan, whose eyes were wide as if he had no idea what was going on.

Louis decided to save his son from having to answer and entered the room more.

“Dinner’s about ready,” he announced. “You all should go and figure out what you want to drink.”

Phoebe let out a huff, standing up and muttering about Daisy being a complete cheater. Daisy helped to pull Nathan to his feet and then led him out of the room. Louis just shook his head in amusement, then headed upstairs. He knocked on Fizz’s door, then popped his head in and saw her video-chatting to some bloke.

“Dinner’s ready. Say goodbye to the boyfriend.”

“He’s not my boyfriend!” Fizz cried embarrassedly, matching the same cries from the boy who claimed he wasn’t her boyfriend.

Louis just threw his sister a little wink, then left the room and headed to Lottie’s. He knocked a few times but received no answer. The door was locked as well, causing him to huff.

“Come on, Lott!” he said, knocking even harder on the door.

His sister finally stumbled to the door, opening it to reveal a pitch black room.

“Were you sleeping?” he asked, seeing his sister’s tired expression. Lottie just nodded, and Louis made a mental note to have a talk with his sister after dinner. “Alright, well, dinner’s ready.”

“I’m not hungry,” she said immediately, preparing to shut the door on him.

“I don’t care and neither will mum. Come down and at least sit at the table. It’s been ages since Nathan and I have been around.”

Lottie let out a sigh before muttering a, “fine.”

“I expect to see you downstairs soon,” Louis warned, turning and heading back downstairs after giving his sister a pointed look.

Once he was back in the kitchen, he grabbed his glass of wine and headed to the dining room where everyone was already sitting and beginning to dig into dinner. He took a seat at the head of the table across from his mum and then glanced over at Nathan, pleased to see that Fizz had started to help him with cutting the meat into smaller pieces. Content over the fact that his son was being helped, he began piling food onto his plate.

The dinner talk was fairly light, the girls all divulging Nathan and Louis in what was going on in school and afterschool activities. Lottie remained quiet throughout dinner, nibbling on a roll with an almost bored expression and Louis gave up on trying to drag her into conversation. When Fizz began asking Nathan how he liked school, the six year old began rattling off random things.

“It’s awesome! My teacher is really nice, though she makes us raise our hand in class and that gets annoying. Sometimes I come home and my arm hurts from holding it up! Will told her that his arm was going to fall off once and then she told him to stop exer-exergag-exergagging,” Nathan said, stumbling over the word with a frown.

“Exaggerating,” Louis supplied gently, causing Nathan to beam and nod.

“Who’s Will?” Phoebe asked.

“My best friend in the whole world!” Nathan answered excitedly. “Sometimes I go to his house and play. He plays football with me and his big brother is now friend’s with dad!”

Louis froze for a moment, afraid of how much Nathan was going to say. When he had told Nathan not to say anything, he had said to just not tell Eleanor, nothing about other people.

“We’re not friends,” he protested feebly, knowing that even just allowing the idea of friendship to sink into his family’s heads was going to arouse suspicion.

“But…dad,” Nathan started with furrowed eyebrows. “Aren’t you? You talk and stuff.”

“It’s the polite thing to do,” he said, avoiding looking at his mum, whose eyes he could feel on him.

“But what about when you were kissin-”

“Nathan!” Louis breathed quickly, but the damage was already done.

Jay’s fork clattered down onto her plate and a thick silence surrounded the entire table. Louis squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a slow breath to calm himself. He soon heard Fizz saying Nathan’s name and telling him to come back, and he opened his eyes to see his son leaving the table and rushing out of the room.

Ignoring the other five people at the table, he stood up and quickly went to follow Nathan as his parent-mode kicked in. He went into the sitting room and saw Nathan huddled on the edge of the couch, his face pressed into a pillow and his body curled in. Quietly he sat down on the couch, his hand going to Nathan’s back and rubbing soothing circles.

“Hey, bud. It’s okay,” he whispered.

“I’m sorry,” Nathan mumbled into the pillow.

“No, Nathan. You’ve no reason to be sorry. You really did nothing wrong,” Louis pointed out, lifting his son’s face away from the pillow and then wiping away the trails of embarrassed and ashamed tears.

“Why don’t you want people to know?” Nathan asked, looking at him as if trying to grasp the complicated concept. “Do you not like Harry?”

“No, that’s not it, buddy,” he said. “I…I do like him,” he breathed, unsure of how much exactly to tell his son. “Now is just not the right time to like him.”

“But don’t you want to be with him? You smile more with him than you do mummy.”

Louis let out a small, shaky laugh, wondering how it was that his son managed to pick up on such things. Children were observant, sometimes almost painfully so.

“Would it bother you if I ever was with him?” Louis asked.

Nathan pondered the question carefully and then shook his head.

“No, because I like Harry. Just not the way you like him, because that’s kind of gross to kiss him,” Nathan said, wrinkling his nose a little.

Louis couldn’t help but to chuckle, running his hand through his son’s brown hair.

“Hey, Nathan? Why don’t you go and finish your dinner, sweetheart,” Jay’s voice interrupted.

Louis stiffened, knowing that this meant his mum wanted to talk to him. Nathan slid off of the couch, not before patting his dad’s leg gently as if he were reassuring his father that it’d be alright, then left the room. Jay took a seat on the couch next to the one that Louis was on, giving her son a careful calculating look.

“How did this happen?” she asked finally.

Louis pulled his bottom lip through his teeth for a moment before exhaling slowly.

“We’ve run into each other a few times. I dunno, it all just…escalated.”

“Does Eleanor know about this?” she asked, to which Louis promptly shook his head. “Just Nathan?”

“Well, Nathan and I guess Harry’s friend,” he said, thinking of Zayn and the grocery store incident.

“How old is Harry?”

“Seventeen,” Louis mumbled, scratching the back of his neck.

Jay’s eyebrows flew up before she cried, “Louis! He’s not even of age?!”

“He…he almost is,” he said, knowing though that they still had just under a full year before Harry was eighteen.

“He’s younger than your sister,” Jay pointed out. “Would you ever date one of Lottie’s friends?” Louis wrinkled his nose at the though and shook his head. Most of the kids Lottie used to hang out with were obnoxious and rude. “And now you’re involved with someone even younger. Why, Louis,” Jay asked gently.

Louis sighed slowly, running his hand through his hair.

“I don’t… I don’t know what it is about him. He’s different. He’s funny, smart, attractive…”

“And you’re married with a son.”

“Eleanor and I are getting a divorce,” Louis said bluntly, finding no reason to skirt around the subject anymore.

Jay stared at him in surprise for a moment before saying, “I’m not sure whether to feel happy or sorry.”

“Let’s go with happy,” Louis said lightly. “I mean, maybe now I’ll get a chance to do something that makes me happy, find someone that makes me happy.”

“But, Lou, darling, I don’t think that Harry is the right person for that.”

Louis shook his head, beginning to feel slightly frustrated that his mum seemed so against it.

“You’re wrong.”

“Louis, what’s going to happen when he goes off to college or uni in the fall? He’s going to move on and forget about you, while you’ll be stuck here and brokenhearted.”

It was a thought that Louis didn’t even really want to consider, especially since it was something that they wouldn’t have to think about for quite a few months. It also made him aware of the fact that he really ought to start looking for either a job or something to do, for he couldn’t just sit around and mope for the rest of his life over how pathetic he felt.

“I’m not going to tell you what you should do, you’re old enough to make your own decisions, but I want you to be careful Louis. I don’t want whatever this is with Harry to turn into something that could ruin you.” Louis nodded, knowing that his mum was really only looking out for him. “Come on then,” Jay said, standing up from the couch. “Let’s go finish up dinner. I’m sure the girls still want to tell you all about their incident in dance class the other night.”

~ * ~

Once dinner had wrapped up, without any further mentions of Harry, and the table was all cleared, Louis headed up the stairs and stood outside of Lottie’s closed door. His sister had escaped almost immediately once dinner was over and had taken solace in her room again. Knocking on the door a few times, he waited a good minute before it finally opened.

“Oh look, it’s my dear brother who is screwing a minor,” Lottie said with a straight face.

“I’m not screwing him!” Louis said quickly, which was entirely true. One hand-job did not equate to screwing. “How’d you know he was a minor?”

“Nathan told us how old he was while you were talking to mum. Whatever, do whoever you want to do.”

“Right, as much as I’d love to talk to you about this, I actually came up here for another reason,” he said. Lottie said nothing, instead just looking at him with a curious expression. “Err, can I come in?”

Lottie sighed and then opened the door more, letting him shuffle into the room and then take a seat on the desk chair.

“So what is it?” Lottie asked, sitting down on her bed.

“What’s been up with you? You seemed to love school the first couple months, then all of a sudden you hate it and drop out? Now you’re just… hiding away and keeping to yourself. This isn’t the Lottie I know,” he said carefully.

“Yeah, well, the Louis I know wouldn’t go around seducing minors,” Lottie shot back.

“I didn’t seduce him! And there’s no reason to get defensive, Lott. I was just pointing out the obvious here.”

“You’re one to talk about getting defensive,” Lottie muttered under her breath before running a hand through her hair.

“Okay, let’s just focus on what’s happened with you. Something big obviously happened while you’re at school.” Lottie said nothing, her eyes soon moving down and staying trained on the bedcover. “Lottie, you know that I won’t tell anyone. You used to come to me over everything.”

Lottie took a slow breath before mumbling, “You can’t tell, Lou. You can’t. Only one other person knows and I just… but maybe talking to you will help.”

Louis let out a small, relieved sigh, glad that he wasn’t going to have to force anything out of his sister.

“I promise my lips are sealed. Won’t tell a soul,” he said.

“I was pregnant.”

Louis felt his body turn to ice as he took in what his sister said and he nearly choked at the admission.

“You’re what?” he said, trying not to let his voice carry.

“Was,” Lottie corrected. “I was pregnant. I…I got an abortion.”

He forced himself not to shake at the thought and pushed aside any of his own personal beliefs. His first concern was Lottie and the well-being of his sister, who had done what she thought was for the best.

“Why?” he asked.

“The guy I was seeing didn’t want it, and I…I didn’t want to make the same mistake that you did,” she whispered, not meeting his eyes. He was torn with pain and understanding, knowing that his struggle through his marriage must have been more than evident to all of his sisters. “I know you love Nathan and all,” she added quickly, “But that…it’s just not time for me. I’m not as strong as you are to handle all of it quite yet.”

Louis mulled over this, holding back the comment that she should have learned to adjust and live with the mistake she made. At the same time though, he wouldn’t wish the type of relationship he had with Eleanor on any of his sisters.

“I…I can respect that,” he said slowly. “I’m just, I’m honestly shocked. I thought you would have been more careful when it comes to…you know,” he said vaguely, waving his hand in the air instead of just saying the word sex. Because really, he didn’t want to ever think about his younger sisters having sex.

“I know,” Lottie whispered.

“So why didn’t you go back to school then? This must have happened before the holidays.”

Lottie nodded before answering, “I couldn’t face the guy. I just…I wish we could have somehow made it work. I feel so confused, and hurt, and just not stable enough to go back and do the whole school thing right now. I need to focus on me.”

“You should come and visit me,” he suggested, knowing it would do her good to get out of the house and away from her locked room. “I’ve got the house pretty much to myself for now until the time comes to sell it.”

“You’re selling it?” Lottie frowned. “Why?”

Louis realized belatedly that his sister had no idea that his relationship with Eleanor was on the road to ending.

“El and I are getting a divorce,” he answered.

“Oh,” Lottie breathed. “But… this is, this is good, isn’t it?” she asked. Louis shrugged, deep down mixed between elatedness and pain. “Now you can be with Harry,” Lottie said, lips tugging into a grin.

Louis rolled his eyes, deciding not to indulge his sister with commenting on the subject.

“I’m going to go downstairs now,” he said, standing up from the chair. “You should come down and play a game or something,” he said.

“Maybe,” Lottie answered. “Oh, and Louis?” she began, causing Louis to freeze as he nearly left the room. “Thank you.”

Louis smiled, giving her a small nod.

“Of course, Lottie,” he said, moving back into the room to give his sister a long hug before leaving.


	11. Chapter 10

Opening the front door, Louis blinked a few times in surprise. It wasn’t who was standing on the doorstep, for he had been expecting the curly-haired boy, but rather what he was holding.

“What in the world is all that?” he asked, looking at the two brown bags.

“I come with food,” Harry replied with a grin.

“We could have just ordered pizza,” Louis pointed out. “You didn’t have go and get anything.”

“Right. Pizza compared to food made by yours truly? I don’t think it’s even a question which one is better. I’m cooking for you. Deal with it.”

Louis couldn’t help the pleased feeling from washing over him, for he really never had had anyone cook for him before. Eleanor’s family dinner attempts definitely did not count.

“Well, if you insist,” he said with a dramatic sigh.

“Yeah, I do. Now let me in, Mr. Tomlinson.”

Fighting a chuckle, Louis moved to let Harry enter the house and then closed the door. He spotted a car backing down the drive way as he did, and instantly knew that it had been Zayn who had dropped Harry off. Which really, made all the sense in the world, for Louis doubted that Anne Cox would willingly drop Harry off here. Not that she had any idea about what was happening between her son and Louis.

“Why do you do that?” Louis asked, taking one of the bags wordlessly from Harry and heading towards the kitchen.

“Do what?”

“The ‘Mr. Tomlinson’,” Louis clarified as they entered the room and he moved to place the bag down on the counter.

“Ahh,” Harry said, and Louis turned to see his lips tugging into a grin. “I like how flustered it tends to make you.”

“Is it that obvious?” he asked, tugging his lower lip a bit between his teeth.

“Yeah, more so when I had first done it. You seem to be getting used to my teasing. I’ll have to change it up soon.”

Louis was quiet, not sure if Harry changing his teasing and flirtation tactics was a good thing or not. The two had definitely fallen into a comfortable state with one another, and Harry’s comments no longer had the painfully obvious effect on him. That was not to say though that the boy did not get to him.

Just the other day Louis had met Harry during his lunch break at Tesco, where the two then went to the adjacent ice cream shop and Harry had, quite filthily, proceeded to lick and suck at his ice cream cone. Louis could not remember a time he had ever been so hard in public before. Harry had just taken it all in stride though, undoubtedly pleased that he could rile Louis up and leave him painfully aroused without being able to do anything about it. Damn only having a thirty-minute lunch break. Not that Louis would have been crazy with sneaking to a bathroom or alleyway, for the only time they had done anything sexual had been at the hotel, and Louis was one with a bit more class than doing more in some random, dirty place.

“So what are you making?” Louis asked, beginning to peak through the bags.

“Fajitas,” Harry said, an almost cheeky smile on his face. “I wasn’t sure really sure what kind of food you liked, but it’s one of the easier dishes to do, and who doesn’t like a good fajita?”

“Fair point.” Louis grinned, his stomach nearly rumbling in excitement already.

He began helping Harry unpack the grocery bags, placing the items on the counter. He paused when he reached a bottle of wine, taking it out and raising an eyebrow as he looked at Harry.

“Uhh…Zayn picked it up for me,” Harry said, obviously thinking about the whole purchasing aspect.

“Figured that much,” Louis replied instantly. “But…wine?” he asked, fighting a smile.

“Wine… fajitas… a movie, it sounded nice,” Harry said, and Louis saw a rare and sheepish expression on Harry’s face, followed by a light flush to his cheeks.

“It does sound nice,” Louis said, leaning to peck one of Harry’s heated cheeks gently. “What movie?”

“I grabbed a couple,” Harry said, seemingly relieved at the change of topics. Louis watched as Harry reached into one of the bags, taking a few films out, and he took them immediately from Harry’s outstretched hand. “Cutting board and knife?” Harry asked.

Louis wordlessly pointed to the cabinet where he knew those supplies were.

“Might have cobwebs on them though,” he murmured, looking through the small selection of movies.

“Lovely,” Harry replied. “You clearly cook loads.”

“Yes, as you’ll be able to tell by the stains on the stove,” Louis said. Though really, the stove was shining immaculately, for it rarely was used. As he popped open on of the DVDs, thinking one was the recent “Hangover” movie, he paused and fought a small snicker at what movie was really in the case. “‘Bambi’?” he asked.

“What?” Harry asked, and Louis looked up to see Harry already beginning to chop peppers and onions.

“This is ‘Bambi’, not ‘The Hangover 2’,” he said, holding the DVD up to show Harry.

Harry let out a small choking sound before stumbling through an excuse of, “It’s Will’s movie!”

Louis pursed his lips, grinning widely as he shook his head.

“No it’s not,” he said. “It’s totally yours.”

“Lou-”

“Haz-”

“Haz?” Harry repeated, his expression changing to one that was curious at the sudden use of a nickname.

“Oh, sorry,” Louis said quickly. “I just… you know… Harry, Hazza… I was just-”

“I like it,” Harry said softly, looking down at the vegetables that he was chopping with a pleased smile. Louis refrained from sighing in relief, glad that Harry wasn’t bothered by the nickname. “Hey, Louis. Come here,” Harry said, breaking the brief silence that had filled the kitchen.

Louis complied, almost hesitantly, and froze when he saw Harry holding out the knife for him to take.

“Oh no, no, no,” he breathed, eyes widening as he looked at the dangerous utensil.

“What?” Harry asked, his brows knitting together. “It’s just a knife. Could you just keep chopping so I can start the chicken?”

“I…I don’t really use knives,” he admitted, looking at the knife as if it was going to kill him.

“What do you mean? You’re not allowed to touch them?”

“I’m allowed, I guess,” he clarified slowly. “I just don’t properly know how to use them or trust myself.”

Harry stared at him for a few seconds, and it was evident that the boy was torn with wanting to laugh or sympathize.

“Okay. Come here,” Harry said, placing the knife down and backing up from the counter a little.

Louis shuffled closer, Harry soon guiding him so that he was standing in front of the cutting board. He felt Harry’s body pressing lightly into his back, and then warm, large hands taking his wrists.

“Now pick up the knife,” Harry murmured.

Louis nodded, almost numbly, as his hand carefully picked the knife up by the handle. Harry’s hand moved to rest on top of his own hand, leading him to carefully cut the vegetables.

“Not so bad, yeah?” Harry breathed into his ear.

Though Louis knew that it really wasn’t so bad because of how Harry was guiding him.

“Not so bad,” he repeated.

~ * ~

Harry’s cooking had been, quite honestly, some of the greatest he had ever tasted. It honestly rivaled that of his mum’s, and Louis found himself envious of the fact that cooking came so naturally and easily to the younger boy.

Taking a small sip of his wine, he placed the glass carefully down on the ground, chuckling when Harry let out a small sound of protest from being shifted.

“Sorry,” he said softly, his free hand moving back so that his fingers could gently sift through Harry’s hair.

Harry let out a content sound, one nearly like a purr, and Louis figured that there wasn’t any place better at the moment than sitting on the couch, Harry’s head in his lap, and both happy and relaxed after a wonderful dinner, a movie, and glasses of wine.

“Louis?” Harry asked, breaking the silence.

Louis watched as Harry’s eye fluttered open and pushed away trying to remember how they had exactly ended up in this position on the couch.

“Hmm?” he prompted.

“Does this ever freak you out?” Harry asked. “I mean, me being seventeen and you twenty-three… Eleanor…Nathan…” Harry trailed off.

Louis stared down at Harry’s jade eyes, and then shook his head.

“I mean, yeah, at first I guess it did a little, but then I got to know a bit more. And like you had said at the park, age is only a number. I guess I sort of forget that you’re seventeen when I’m with you. You seem older.”

“I’m just so wise and smart.” Harry grinned. “And well, you really don’t seem twenty-three. I really did think you were much younger than that when I first saw you.”

“So I look young and childish?” he asked, his tone light.

“No!” Harry said quickly. “Just… not old. You look…handsome,” Harry breathed, face adorned with that same shyness Louis had managed to pull out of Harry earlier. 

“Handsome?” he repeated in surprise, though his heart had fluttered a little at the word. “You’re something else, Styles.”

“I’m serious,” Harry said, reaching a hand up and trailing his fingers along the underside of Louis’ jaw.

Louis ducked his head a little as Harry’s head rose, their lips meeting in an upside-down kiss that had their teeth clanking together awkwardly. Louis pulled back as he chuckled, knowing that they had completely failed.

“I guess we’ll leave the upside-down snogs to Peter Parker and Mary Jane,” Harry said, referring to the movie that they had just watched.

“Yeah, probably a wise idea,” Louis grinned.

Harry pulled himself off of Louis’ lap and moved into a sitting position, soon leaning forward to press their lips together softly for a kiss that was a thousand times better than their last attempt. Louis let out a soft sigh, his fingers reaching out to keep Harry’s head close to his. He nearly groaned when Harry pulled back from the kiss, for he hadn’t wanted it to end so soon.

“Lou?” Harry asked, causing Louis’ eyes to quickly open as he took in the slightly timid expression on Harry’s face.

“Haz?” he prompted, using his new favourite nickname.

“Please,” Harry breathed.

Louis didn’t have to question what Harry was saying ‘please’ to. He could easily tell by the look on Harry’ face, one of hesitancy and possible eagerness and excitement, what Harry wanted. Part of him really was not all that surprised though, for when he had told Harry he could come over for a movie and food, he had let his mind graze of the possibility of what else could happen. Of how they could, potentially, be taking another step forward in the slightly twisted relationship they had.

But it really, to him, was only twisted because of Eleanor. And it was that thought that had him resisting immediately saying ‘yes’. Looking at Harry’s face though, only inches from his own, he knew that there was never any way he could ever say no. From day one there was never any way he could have said no.

Nodding, he pushed himself to his feet, one hand outstretching for Harry to grab. The younger boy’s face seemed to flood with relief as he moved to his feet.

“Guest room,” Louis breathed, for he knew that there was no way he could even think about doing anything in the bed that he and Eleanor had once, ages ago, shared.

Harry nodded, not needing any clarification, then pressed a gentle kiss to Louis’ lips for a quick second before taking his hand and leading him up the stairs. As they made their way to the room, they stole occasional kisses from each other; ones that were quick, ones that were soft, ones that were rough. The variation continued to build along with the intensity, and by the time they were moving into the guest room, Harry’s eyes had darkened a startling amount and had Louis sucking in a quick breath and trying to reign in all control of his rushing hormones.

Their lips met as they stood in the center of the room, Louis’ tongue pushing into Harry’s mouth, as he tasted the sweet, bitter taste of wine that was left on his tongue. He felt Harry beginning to pull at his t-shirt and he separated their mouths to allow Harry the chance to remove it completely. Moving his mouth forward, he let out a sound of protest when Harry denied him of a kiss. Before he could even ask or say anything, Harry dropped to his knees and began unbuttoning Louis’ pants and dragging down the zipper.

Louis breathed slowly through his nose, not letting himself get worked up over the proximity of Harry’s mouth to the hardened bulge still tucked in his pants and boxers. His teeth dug into his lip as he prevented himself from making any sounds as Harry pulled his pants and boxers down completely. He knew his cheeks were flushed, not just from arousal, but from slight embarrassment as well. When Harry had jerked him off in the hotel, he hadn’t really seen him. Now though, his hard length was completely exposed and Harry was unbelievably close to it.

“Perfect,” Louis heard Harry mutter under his breath, but before Louis could brush off the comment, Harry’s mouth wrapped around the head of his cock and began sinking down over the length quickly.

“Oh fuck,” Louis groaned, feeling Harry’s mouth completely envelope him.

Harry remained still for a moment, his eyes flashing up and locking on Louis’, then started to move his mouth quickly. Once Louis got over the incoherent thoughts of how fucking perfect Harry felt and fuck so good and fucking fuck that tongue and just fuck, he thought of how Zayn was right; Harry was amazing at sucking cock. It was like he had a natural ability, not that Louis had much to compare it to, but the lips, tight heat, and no resistance or hesitancy made it all just so bloody fucking good.

“Har-Harry,” he said, letting out a small gasp as he knew he was already, almost embarrassingly, near climax. “I’m going to… I’m going to come if you don’t stop.”

Harry didn’t relent though, instead continuing to suck quickly and tightly at Louis’ cock. Louis understood the hint and took it, not resisting any longer and allowing himself to have the orgasm he had been on the verge of giving in to. He was vaguely aware of himself moaning and coming into Harry’s mouth, then vaguely aware of Harry helping him step out of the pants and boxers that were bunched around his ankles and being led, with shaky legs, to the bed.

“God, you’re good,” he breathed, shifting back onto the bed and relaxing his back against the pillows as he held out a hand to pull Harry close to him.

Harry just shook his head though, a pleased and cheeky smile on his face, as he slowly began taking off his clothes. Louis’ eyes followed every article of clothing’s movement before his gaze would flash back up to the new skin that was revealed. His heart thumped heavily in his chest as Harry stood in just his boxers and began tugging them down. He felt his mouth dry slightly as Harry’s hard cock was freed, because fuck it was hard for him, and it was a thought that left him giddy with excitement. Harry wanted him, and not the single opinion of anyone else mattered in that moment.

Harry then bent and rummaged through his jeans pocket, Louis’ eyes unable to resist running over the small curve of his ass, then stood and began shifting through a wallet. He pulled out two packets before dropping the wallet to the ground, and then moved over to the bed.

“Look at you all prepared,” Louis teased lightly.

Harry just let out a light chuckle as he moved to straddle one of Louis’ thighs.

“Mm, I’ve just wanted this for a while,” he admitted, his fingers trailing softly along Louis’ upper thigh.

Louis nodded, completely understanding and feeling exactly the same, whether he had ever consciously recognized it or not. Harry leaned and placed a soft, lingering kiss on Louis’ mouth, and for the first time, Louis tasted the faint taste of cum on the boy’s mouth. Harry pulled back and Louis’ eyes opened to see the younger boy opening up a packet and beginning to spread lube over his fingers.

“I-I’ve done this… thinking about you,” Harry said quietly. But before Louis could ask what, he saw Harry’s hand move and the boy beginning to finger himself open above Louis’ thigh. Harry let out a moan before saying, “Usually only get two fingers and the thought of you is too much. I just, ah, fuck, can’t wait to finally feel you.”

Louis felt his breathing quicken as he watched Harry beginning to fuck his own fingers and god if that wasn’t one of the hottest things he had ever seen. His own cock was already beginning to react from the sight, hardening again in such a quick amount of time that he felt like a ridiculously horny teenager again.

“Lou? I…I wanna ride you,” Harry said, a moan leaving his lips as he tried to speak and then his back arching a little as he let out a slight cry full of pleasure.

“Yes. Fuck…yes,” Louis whispered, reaching with slightly shaky hands for the condom that Harry had dropped onto the bed. He worked at ripping the packet open, having to use his teeth to get the corner undone, then made quick work at rolling the condom over his hard length.

Nearly as soon as the condom was on, Harry withdrew his fingers and moved over him. One of Harry’s hands rested on the chest, the other gripping Louis’ cock in a way that had Louis hissing from the touch. Harry slowly moved down and Louis did all he could to not move himself up into the welcoming heat as Harry beginning to take him in.

His eyes remained locked on Harry’s face as the boy’s face scrunched up from the slight pain he was evidently feeling, but Harry continued to push himself down while the smallest of gasps and whimpers left his lips. Once Louis was completely inside of him, the sheer idea nearly sending a shudder through his body, Harry began to pull up slowly and then sink down again. A succession of quickening slides had Louis letting out a low moan, for nothing could possibly have felt better.

When Harry’s body seemed to be more relaxed and comfortable with the stretch, he bent and Louis met his lips for a rough kiss while their hips rolled together. Louis’ mouth was compliant to Harry’s plundering tongue, and the kiss grew more desperate as their bodies moved rhythmically together.

Harry was the first to pull back from the kiss; short, quick breaths mixed with moans leaving his mouth as their eyes locked. Louis, realizing that he had completely failed in giving any attention to Harry’s cock, reached a hand out to take a hold of him. Harry though was quick to stop his efforts, instead taking his wrist and pinning it to the bed while shaking his head.

“Gonna come like this,” Harry muttered. “Gonna come.”

Louis watched as Harry’s body seemed to tense for a moment before the younger boy’s eyes squeezed shut as pure pleasure shot through him. Watching the other boy and then feeling his muscles tighten around his own cock, Louis couldn’t resist giving into his second orgasm of the night.

He lay there, thoroughly breathlessly, after moaning Harry’s name. Feeling Harry sliding off of him, he, in a drowsy haze, reached down to take off the condom. After tying it and tossing it in the trash bin near the bed, he turned and pulled Harry close to him.

The younger boy looked to be the definition of pure contentment and completely satisfied as he curled into Louis’ side and leaned to press a sleepy kiss to Louis’ chest.

“Thank you,” Harry whispered, his head burrowing into Louis’ side as the two made no move to clean up the rest of the mess they had made.

“No. Thank you,” Louis corrected softly, one of his hands moving to tangle gently in Harry’s hair while the other kept their bodies pressed together.


	12. Chapter 11

Louis hummed as he felt the slow drag of fingertips up his torso pulling him into consciousness as the touch rose over his stomach and to his chest. He tried not to shudder from the ghosting contact that moved over his left pec, and the hand settled completely where his heart was. He was sure that the owner of the hand could feel the quick thumps that were thundering from his heart, and he did all he could to slow his heartbeat.

“Morning,” a voice, husky from sleep, whispered, undoubtedly aware by his racing heart that he was awake.

Louis’ eyes fluttered open and he looked up to see Harry on his side, head perched on a folded arm while the other arm was responsible for hand movements that were sending small tingles and warm trills through Louis’ body.

“Hi,” Louis said, almost breathlessly as he looked at Harry.

For some reason, there was a part of him that was relieved that Harry was still in the bed with him. There had been the smallest bit of doubt that Harry was really only after getting sex, that perhaps this whole thing was purely just a conquest to the younger boy and that he was going to leave after victoriously taking his prize.

Now though, with Harry’s wide smile before him, Louis knew that that was a small fear that he never should have even had.

“How long have you been awake?” Louis asked, unable to resist reaching a hand out and running his fingers through the curls that had fallen in Harry’s face.

“Not too long,” Harry answered, a soft sigh leaving his mouth as Louis continued playing with his hair.

“So you just decided to watch me sleep?” he asked, raising an eyebrow, though entirely amused.

“You’re beautiful,” Harry said softly, and Louis didn’t miss the gathering flush to Harry’s cheeks that he was sure was mirroring his own.

“What?” Louis asked, almost shy under the praise.

“You are,” Harry continued through his slight embarrassment. “I mean, there’s just… there’s something about you. I feel drawn to you.”

Louis nibbled thoughtfully on his lower lip for a moment, then moved his head so that he could press his lips gently to Harry’s. Harry sighed softly as their lips met and Louis twisted under the sheet that was gathered and bunched around their waists. As he shifted over Harry, their lips remained connected and their tongues soon slid against one another. The sheet slipped down as Louis moved to straddle Harry’s waist, his fingers curling into Harry’s hair gently, and he tipped the boy’s head back as their groins met.

He could feel Harry’s cock beginning to swell and harden against his, and he grinded himself down as he felt his body reacting the same way. He pulled back from the kiss as he felt Harry’s mouth sliding from his, then opened his eyes to see Harry’s head tilting back into the pillows as he let out a groan.

Louis couldn’t help but to drop his mouth to Harry’s neck, his teeth nipping and lips sucking at the skin. He could feel Harry’s pulse jumping underneath his mouth as their hips continued to move against one another.

“Louis,” Harry moaned.

Louis quickly released a hand from Harry’s hair and put a little distance between their bodies. His hand slid between them, taking a hold of Harry’s cock and touching the heated, smooth flesh for the first time. He moved his hand, almost a little unsure of what he was doing, but just thought of what he liked when he pleasured himself.

“Oh god,” Harry choked out, and Louis knew he must be doing something right.

Spurred on by Harry’s sounds, he tightened his hand and began fisting it up and down, reveling in the noises that continued to leave Harry’s mouth. 

Louis watched as Harry’s eyes soon screwed shut tightly, his back arching slightly off the bed and a whimper leaving his mouth as hot liquid soon coated Louis’ hand. He milked the orgasm out of Harry, the boy panting harshly beneath him. Removing his hand from Harry, Louis tightened his wet hand around his own erection and, two quick pulls later, he was coming as well.

His body dropped to rest lightly on Harry’s, not even minding the sticky mess that was on the both of them. He pressed a lazy kiss to Harry’s neck, a happy hum leaving his mouth as he did.

“Louis, I think I-” Harry began slowly, but a loud rumble sounded from Harry’s stomach and Louis could feel the vibrations against him.

The two dissolved into a small fit of giggles for a moment before Louis prompted, “You think?”

“Nothing,” Harry said. “Forget it. I need some breakfast though, if my stomach growling didn’t make that obvious.”

“Okay,” Louis said with a smile, not wanting to press for what Harry had been about to say. “I think a quick shower is in order first though.”

~ * ~

“So what do you think?”

Louis turned from where he had been taking cereal out of the pantry and looked in amusement to see Harry wearing a clean pair of boxers that Louis had given him.

“They look like they’re going to slip,” he said, knowing that if he were to just tug gently, they’d probably come down easily.

“Well, I’m all torso. No hips,” Harry said, looking down at himself and smiling almost bashfully as he toyed with the fabric of the boxers.

“I like you the way you are,” Louis said. “And I like you in my clothes.”

“I’ll just have to wear your clothes more often then,” Harry said, and Louis could tell that it was said almost questioning, as if asking if this whole thing was something that would happen again or was a one-off.

“Yeah, you will,” Louis replied, giving Harry a smile.

Harry looked up and beamed before clearing his throat a little and asking, “So what’s for breakfast then?”

“Cereal?” Louis asked, holding up a few different boxes.

“Works for me. Oh! You’ve got Lucky Charms!” Harry said excitedly.

“So I’m guessing Lucky Charms it is then,” he said, putting the other boxes away and moving to the counter where there were two bowls and a gallon of milk waiting. “Just tell me how much cereal you want,” he said, beginning to pour it into a bowl.

He felt arms wrap around his waist, and Harry’s lips press gently to his bare shoulder as he continued to pour the cereal.

“That’s good,” Harry said, and Louis stopped and started to pour some into a bowl for himself.

He then opened the milk and began pouring it into the bowls, but the sudden sound of the front door shutting caused him to freeze and spill some milk onto the counter.

“Shit,” he muttered, realizing what he did and putting the milk gallon down. “Shit, shit, shit” he said quickly and quietly, eyes wide as he turned around in Harry’s arms. “Just…could you maybe just go into-”

But before he could formulate a plan another voice interrupted.

“What the hell is this?”

Louis stiffened, taking a small step back from Harry so that the boy’s arms weren’t around him anymore.

“Eleanor,” he croaked. “What are you doing here?”

“Nathan needed to get more of his clothes,” Eleanor said shortly, looking quickly between Louis and Harry. “What the hell is going on here? Louis, who is this?”

Before Louis could think of a response, Nathan entered the kitchen with a, “Mum? Do you know where- Harry!”

“Hey, mate,” Harry said uneasily.

“What are you doing here?” Nathan asked excitedly. “Are you kissing dad again?” he asked slyly.

Eleanor let out a noise of surprise before saying, “Louis. Come with me. Now.”

Louis nodded, following Eleanor out of the room like a puppy who knew it was about to get punished severely.

“Nathan, just stay here with Harry,” Louis said as he passed his son and ruffled his hair.

Nathan nodded and as Louis left the room, he heard his son say, “Is that Lucky Charms? Can I have some?”

Keeping a few steps behind Eleanor, he walked after her and into the living room where she then sat down onto the couch. He watched awkwardly as she propped her elbows on her knees and then rested her forehead on the palm of her hands.

“How long have you been shagging that boy?” she asked after a moment of silence.

“He’s not a boy,” Louis muttered.

“Answer the damn question, Louis,” Eleanor said harshly, lifting her head and glaring at him.

“Last night was the first time we…” he said before breaking off, feeling more than awkward discussing this in front of his wife, or soon to be ex-wife, in nothing more than a pair of boxers.

“So you haven’t done anything with him before last night?” she asked, raising an eyebrow almost mockingly.

“Well, I guess,” Louis said hesitantly, not wanting to lie.

“And that…that’s William’s brother Harry, isn’t it. Jesus, Louis, you’re fucking a kid. You… you’ve been with a kid and we aren’t even divorced yet.”

“We’re definitely separated though, don’t deny that. And he’s not a kid.”

“Not a kid?” Eleanor snorted. “Right. How old is he then?”

“Seventeen,” Louis said, shifting uneasily on his feet.

“Oh yeah, not a kid,” Eleanor said, laughing almost bitterly. “So who knows?” she asked. “Who knows about you and him? Have you told his mummy? Does she have you ‘round for dinner and then you help him with his homework afterward?”

“It’s not like that,” Louis said between his teeth.

“Oh, it’s not?” Eleanor asked, getting to her feet. “So it’s just sex then. Nice, didn’t realize you were so shallow. Well, I hope that whatever the hell you decided to do with that boy is worth it. Especially as, soon enough, he’s going to wake up and realize he was a complete fool for wasting his time on a pathetic cheating wanker like you.”

She began to leave the room and Louis reached out to gently grab her wrist.

“Wait, El,” he pleaded.

She turned and, with extreme force, slapped him across the face with her free hand.

“Let me go,” she whispered coldly.

Louis immediately released her hand go, his free one moving up to his face and wincing as he was sure it was going to bruise.

“I’m taking Nathan. We’re going to my parents and fucking staying there and away from this place. Have fun with your boy toy. I’ll have my lawyer be in touch with you with the court date and, if I’m feeling generous enough, let you see your son.”

“Please don’t keep him from me,” he said desperately. “I don’t care, you can have anything else you want. Just please, don’t keep Nathan away from me.”

Eleanor studied him carefully for a moment, then turned and left the room without a word.

As soon as she left, the front door slamming a few minutes later after she must have gathered Nathan, Louis sunk to the couch and buried his face in his hands, wincing as his hand came in contact with his hot, sore cheek.

“Louis?” a voice said gently, and Louis lifted his face to see Harry standing hesitantly before him.

“You’re still here?” he asked dumbly.

“Of course,” Harry replied, while moving to sit down on the couch. His hand reached out and his long fingers brushed lightly against the red handprint on Louis’ cheek. “Pretty good slap she gave you.”

“Mmm,” Louis hummed, starring resolutely at the ground.

“Say something,” Harry breathed. “I know she must have had a lot to say about this whole thing.”

“I just… as people find out, it makes me feel like a huge idiot for thinking that this could work,” Louis muttered.

If Harry was curious as to who else knew, he didn’t ask about it, instead asking softly, “Why? Why can’t it work?”

“Because you’re… I… It just won’t,” Louis said, stumbling through his words.

“Because I’m seventeen? Because you’re twenty-three, getting a divorce, and have a kid?” Harry filled in, before reaching out and gripping Louis’ jaw, forcing eye contact between the two of them. “Forget all that, Louis. You’re amazing and what makes you amazing is the fact that you aren’t even one fucking bit aware of it. You got handed a shitty hand of cards, but now’s your chance to get new ones and start a new round. Yeah… us? We’re not conventional. But Louis… I swear…I want this. I want a relationship. I want…fuck, I just want you.”

Louis stared into Harry’s eyes, locked for a moment on the intensity and sincerity with which Harry was staring at him. And if he still had any doubt about Harry and the twisted relationship they had, it vanished completely, for now his worries about Harry’s feelings being not reciprocated were completely squashed.

“I…I want you too,” he whispered, watching as a smile bloomed across Harry’s face. “I think I love you,” he admitted quietly.

Harry leaned in and pressed their lips together for a soft, sweet kiss, then pulled back and rested their foreheads together.

“I love you, too,” he murmured, lips brushing against Louis’ as he spoke.

And Louis figured that no matter what else came their way, whatever hate or disapproval, would be worth dealing with. For he had Harry, and though he may have found the boy a dangerous temptation to fall captive to, nothing could deny the love that Louis now felt for him.


	13. Chapter 12

Louis walked out of the courthouse and pressed his back against the side of the building. He took a deep breath as he closed his eyes, welcoming the fresh air into his lungs as all the tension left him.

“Louis?”

Opening his eyes, he saw his mum standing next to him, smiling tentatively, and he pushed himself off the wall of the building and into her arms.

“You okay?” Jay asked, tightening her arms around him.

“Yeah,” he breathed. “Just surprised is all.”

“I know,” Jay said gently.

Louis pulled back to look at his mum while raising an eyebrow.

“You’re surprised?”

“A little,” Jay admitted. “I had a feeling it would all be okay though. Now come on,” she said, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and pulling him away from the building. “Let’s go get some lunch alright?”

Louis nodded, a smile tugging at his lips as they began making their way down the steps and towards the street. A sudden sight though caused him to freeze and his mother came to stop on the steps when he did.

“What are you doing here?” Louis breathed as the curly-haired boy caught his eye.

Standing up, the boy grinned as he made his way over to Louis and his mum.

“I couldn’t just sit around waiting to know how it went,” he said. “So, with my nice, new license, I came and drove up.”

Jay cleared her throat and raised an expectant eyebrow.

“Oh, right,” Louis said, looking nervously between his mum and boy. “Mum, this is-”

“Harry,” the boy introduced, holding his hand and giving a smile that Louis had come to learn was reserved for flattering people.

“Oh, the elusive Harry,” Jay said, shaking his hand. “And I finally get to meet you. I swear, Louis’ been reluctant to let you come ‘round the house.”

“Mum,” Louis muttered embarrassedly.

“Well it’s not as if I’m that bad! The girls can be a handful, but to not let your mother see the boy you’ve been with for a couple months now,” Jay said, lighting cuffing his ear.

“Ow,” Louis pouted, rubbing at it.

“I’m going to go and start up the car,” Jay said. “Harry, you can join us for lunch if you want, love.”

Harry spared a glance at Louis as if checking it were okay, then smiled and said, “Yeah, okay. I’d love to.”

“Great.” Jay beamed. “I’ll just be in the car. Why don’t you two follow to the restaurant,” Jay suggested.

“Yeah, just…give us a second mum?” Louis asked.

Jay nodded and began heading towards the car, then stopped to turn and gave her son a small wink.

“Don’t be too long!” she said.

“She likes you already,” Louis muttered. “How is it that she likes you already?”

“I can charm the pants off older women,” Harry said offhandedly, to which Louis raised an eyebrow. “Not that I’m going to! I’ve got you,” Harry reassured, giving a smile, which always caused Louis to melt. “How’d the case end up going?” Harry asked, the question having been undoubtedly on his mind and wanting to be asked as soon as he had seen Louis.

“Joint custody,” Louis answered, letting out a small, almost shaky sigh for he still couldn’t quite believe it. “She didn’t mention anything about you and me in court either. Just said she knows how important it is for Nathan to have his father. That she knows I love him and she could never take him away from me.”

“Oh, Louis,” Harry breathed, beaming at him. “That’s great.”

Louis nodded, then did a quick glance around before throwing his arms around Harry and burrowing his face into Harry’s neck. He felt Harry’s arms wrap around his waist and couldn’t help but to let out a sound of utter contentment.

“I’m so relieved,” Louis mumbled into Harry’s skin.

“Me too,” Harry whispered, giving Louis a small squeeze.

Louis placed a soft, quick kiss to Harry’s neck before saying, “I swear, you keep getting taller and taller.”

“Not that much of a difference,” Harry chuckled.

“Bet in a year’s time you’ll be six foot five,” Louis exaggerated.

“Right,” Harry laughed. “And then I’ll have to duck to kiss you.”

“Yeah, I suppose you will,” Louis said, pulling back with a smile. “Now come on, don’t want my mum waiting for too long now.”

“Very true,” Harry said, lowering his arms and beginning to walk with Louis towards the parking lot. “Oh, and speaking of mums…”

“Oh no,” Louis groaned.

“Mum wants you to come ‘round for dinner next week.”

“Oh, because that went absolutely spectacularly two weeks ago,” Louis muttered.

“Lou,” Harry pleaded. “Please? I mean, didn’t you say your mum wasn’t supportive of this right off the bat? And then just five minutes ago she was smiling and winking!”

“But see, I told my mum in advance about you. Whereas you failed to tell your mum who I was,” Louis shot back gently as they made their way through the parking lot.

“She promised she would be nice and more open-minded about the whole thing,” Harry said, moving with Louis towards the passenger side of the car.

Before Louis could climb in though, Harry’s hand reached out and kept the door firmly shut, waiting for Louis to answer.

“Promise she won’t start yelling at the table again?” Louis asked after a minute of silence.

“Promise,” Harry said.

“As long as it’s not Thursday night,” Louis reminded. “That’s the night I’ve got-”

“Drama class, I know,” Harry said, pressing his lips lightly to Louis’. “Have I told you today how you’re the best boyfriend in the world?”

“You may have mentioned it in a text that was sent before the hearing,” Louis replied cheekily, causing Harry to chuckle.

“Well I’m telling you again. You’re the best boyfriend in the whole wide world and I love you,” Harry said.

“I love you, too, Haz,” Louis said, leaning to press his lips softly to Harry’s until the sound of a horn made him jump. “Right, that’d be mum tired of waiting,” he said, looking at the car that was near the exit of the parking lot, clearly waiting for them.

“Okay, time to go make your mum love me,” Harry said, taking his hand off of the door and heading towards the driver’s side.

Louis chuckled to himself, loosening his tie a bit as he climbed in the car, completely pleased that everything in his life was going perfectly.

He had his own flat.

He was taking drama classes in hopes that he could one day become a teacher.

He had joint custody of his son.

And he had an amazing boyfriend, one that perhaps he shouldn’t have fallen for, but Harry Styles was an irresistible and dangerous, but extremely lovable, temptation.


End file.
